The ongoing scandal involving the U.S. attorney general's office reminds me how often I hear from people who insist they can't get a fair shot at justice. Politics worked against them, or money, or the clout of someone as powerful as Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony.
Speaking of whom, after going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in a four-year battle to keep files sealed, we now see why Mahony might have been so zealous.
The first look at those documents, in a lawsuit against the church, reveals that His Eminence privately warned the current pope of a priest's criminal misconduct with "partially naked" high school boys. But prosecutors say Mahony did not report that crime. And to make matters worse, Mahony assured parishioners a few months later that the boys were "fully clothed" and that there had been no sexual activity.
I ask you, as I have many times before, to light the candles, get out the rosary beads and pray for the cardinal.
And while you do, let's move on to that other scandal in the news.
Have you been following this thing? The chief of the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego went after knuckle-dragging Republican Rep. Duke Cunningham and his buddies -- a defense contractor and a CIA official -- and the White House kneecapped her.
The president's men made short work of Carol Lam, who was referred to as a "problem" in an e-mail to U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales from an underling. They gave her the word in December and showed her the door last month.
See ya.
Lam, along with seven other regional bosses who were dumped (allegedly for poor performance), might have made the fatal mistake of letting justice get in the way of politics.
Despite winning praise in some quarters for her work against illegal immigration, a superior had suggested that she be "woodshedded" for not doing more. And was she tough enough, critics wondered, on firearms offenses? Meanwhile, in New Mexico, the U.S. attorney was axed after complaints by Republican Sen. Pete Domenici about a stalled corruption investigation involving Democrats.
It all smells so bad, even Republicans like Vincent Marella, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, are holding their noses.
"Even when the smoke clears, the appearance is terribly disruptive," Marella said. "It undermines faith in the justice system, and then all kinds of prosecutorial decisions and all kinds of cases get drawn into question."
