צ Ashcroft's Recusal: Avoiding Going After the Press. I just realized there is a third reason beyond the two of No Prosecution and Unexpected Criminals for Attorney-General Ashcroft's removing himself from the Plame Affair prosecution: He doesn't want to put reporters in jail. They hate him already for his politics and religiosity, and if he vigorously pursues an investigation in which reporters are the main witnesses, he will have to make reporters talk, which they don't want to do. The media will scream "Reporters jailed for contempt--- Nazi Tactics!" if he pursues the investigation, and "Officials allowed to leak without punishment--Nazi Tactics!" if he does not. How clever of the Democrats! But recusal gets him out of it. Here is what Time says.
For an administration that at times holds a very dim view of the press,
the reputation of the Bush White House and the future of some of its
officials may hang on the profession�s ethical standards.
It's plain that White House officials are under some pressure to sign
the documents. "They can't refuse," said one individual who's familiar
with the case. "The worst thing to be accused of here is not cooperating
with the investigation." But reporters are not likely to feel the same
pressure. Journalists rarely divulge the identities of confidential
sources even when threatened with contempt citations so the releases may
make little difference. Still, in a post-9/11 world, a case involving
the disclosure of a covert agent's identity could be taken very
seriously by a judge, who would have the power to jail a member of the
press for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury.
This captures Ashcroft's problem. The White House is fully cooperative,
and in any case an official who refused to talk could be jailed for
contempt unless he took the Fifth. But journalists are uncooperative,
and although they too could be jailed for contempt, they would claim
their refusal to help a criminal investigation was "ethical", a matter
of high duty rather than just the self-interest it is.
[ http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/04.01.04b.htm . erasmusen@yahoo.com. ]
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