The fall of Elliot Spitzer has brought the tactics of prosecutors and their media enablers into sharp focus.
Mr. Spitzer's main offense as a prosecutor is that he violated the basic rules of fairness and due process: Innocent until proven guilty; the right to your day in court. The Spitzer method was to target public companies and officials, leak allegations and out-of-context emails to a compliant press, watch the stock price fall, threaten a corporate indictment (a death sentence), and then move in for a quick settlement kill. There was rarely a trial, fair or unfair, involved.
The cost of prosecutors ignoring the "basic rules of fairness" is even higher when the target is an elected official and his opponents suddenly perceive him a vulnerable. The classic example is JD Hayworth
For an example of how it works, lets start with this March 2006 Republic article.
The national Democratic Party is shopping for a big name to oppose Rep. J.D. Hayworth in Arizona's 5th Congressional District this fall, suggesting that the six-term Republican is vulnerable in the wake of a Capitol Hill lobbying scandal to which he has been linked.
"Linked" is such a great word. The word allows the media to claim a connection without actually saying that the elected official is being "investigated" or being "charged." As Kevin Bacon will tell you, there is no way to claim that you are not "linked" to something.
The article makes it clear that the Democratic Party recruited Mitchell because of the "linkage" and the subsequent story.
Hayworth's Chief of Staff was adamant from the beginning that there was no truth to the story.
Eule said Hayworth never has been contacted by investigators, and Eule dismissed the Times story as "totally wrong."
He also had a prediction.
"By the time the election comes around, it will be proved that what Mr. Hayworth said is correct, that he did nothing wrong, that the charges are bogus," Eule said.
Democrats were quick to pounce on Hayworth's vulnerability and their vitriol was unbounded.
This still shot is part of this Mitchell commercial. I argued at the time that this was a sniper scope and that it was totally inappropriate for Mitchell literally to put Hayworth in the crosshairs. The local media ignored my story, but it went national and the sniper scope image was on Fox News the following day.
But that was only part of the coverage. The local TV Stations were all JD, all the time. Here's a montage of all the local television coverage of the Hayworth/Abramoff "linkage."
Hayworth, of course, lost to Mitchell by about 8,000 votes. The Republic's Dan Nowicki offered the post mortem.
During the recently completed campaign, Democrat Harry Mitchell relentlessly pummeled incumbent Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth over his links to corrupt Capitol Hill lobbyist Jack Abramoff .
What about Joe Eule's prediction that "By the time the election comes around, it will be proved that what Mr. Hayworth said is correct, that he did nothing wrong, that the charges are bogus,"
Well, he was half right. The Justice Department confirmed that Hayworth wasn't the target of an investigation, but it was well after the election. Here's a copy of the letter that the DOJ sent to Hayworth's attorneys. Here's the most interesting part. (funny, I can't find any mention of the exoneration in the Republic archives.)
So where does that leave Hayworth? Out of office and paying off nearly $700,000 in legal bills.
Hayworth recounts the ordeal here and is accepting contributions to help pay his legal bills.
Checks can be issued to "The Freedom In Truth Trust," and mailed to:
The FIT Trust
P.O. Box 984
Willows, California 95988
Reporter Robbie Sherwood wrote this rather scathing epilogue of Hayworth's career. (Sherwood is no longer with the Republic...he now works for Congressman Mitchell.)
In his years as a Valley sportscaster, J.D. Hayworth 's booming catchphrase for a home run was "Vapor!"
Now, that seems like the most apt description for the six-term congressman's once-invulnerable political career.
Hayworth , 48, was swept into office as part of the 1994 "Gingrich Revolution," and with Democratic President Clinton as a target, he quickly established himself as one of the most media-hungry barking dogs of the GOP Caucus.
So that's how the process of political destruction works: whispers of "linkage" and "scrutiny" followed by blaring headlines and endless B Roll, recruiting of a high-profile opponent, commercials and mailers that refer to the headlines and news clips, an election defeat, exoneration that goes unprinted and unnoticed followed by unemployment and legal bills that the candidate can't possibly pay.
Ain't that America.
I'll leave you with a sentence from Sherwood's epilogue.
Love him or loathe him, Hayworth is a larger-than-life presence who is unlikely to stay out of the spotlight for long.