Patrick Fitzgerald: Is he the Next Kenneth Starr?

Just asking.

Let me explain!

I love Law and Order. Despite its sexist, racist bias and cliche characters, the storytelling is usually compelling enough, the bad guy interesting enough. It's not The Wire but it will do on a rainy day.

Real life crime narratives however are generally so incredibly lame: the bad guy almost always plain pitiful, as far as the portentous, nefarious dark (aren't they all...) laughing movie villain as Trent Reznor is from an ice bucket.

Hysterical? Yeah. Manipulative? Ooh yes. Hypocritical? Of course. Opportunistic? Absolutely! Criminally negligent? Damn sure!!

But except for all those we know as perfect shoe-in for Lord Voldemort (Rove, Gingrich, Mukasey, Gramm, Cheney, Helms, etc..), the bad guy are mostly bad boyfriend gone loco (I did not have sex with that woman. What do you mean there's a stain?) or best friends with super backstabbing knives (Lieberman).

So here is another pathetic governor that was supposedly (I cannot believe how basically stupid this is yet!) caught trying to openly set a bidding war over Obama's free seat in the Senate, in HIS OFFICE and OVER THE PHONE ! How did he survive for so long on so little brain? It's a miracle of science...

But what caught my eye was who brought him down. Patrick Fitzgerald. A straight shooter workaholic. Blond, blue eyed Irish type, righteous. Nominated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald, he does not seem too partisan at first sight. Cold, distant, I did not find many that could describe his thinking process except in this old USA Today article:

"Friends and critics agree that his integrity is unassailable and that he is relentless. The list of people he has prosecuted ...shows he has no qualms about going after the powerful.

Fitzgerald's politics, motivations and style have prompted debate.

"He has no agenda," says David Kelley, former U.S. attorney in New York and a longtime friend. "He looks at the facts, uncovers the facts and goes where the facts lead him."

Mary Jo White, who was Fitzgerald's boss when she was U.S. attorney in Manhattan, says she knows nothing about his political views — "if he has any, and he may not."

Fitzgerald, who declined interview requests, is registered to vote with no party affiliation.

Defense lawyers have a different perspective. Scott Mendeloff, a Chicago lawyer who specializes in corporate fraud cases and formerly tried and supervised public corruption prosecutions in the U.S. attorney's office, says Fitzgerald demonstrates "a more black-and-white view of the world" that is "reductionist in disregarding nuances beyond what it will take to prevail." Some defense lawyers, he says, believe Fitzgerald is "not prone to consider what some would term humane factors in charging and sentencing decisions."

"To say that he is extremely aggressive is, I think, a gross understatement," Safer says. When he's arguing a motion, Safer says, Fitzgerald is "not disrespectful, but he's a lot less deferential than I bet most judges are accustomed to."

He does seems more concern about the size of the prey than anything else: Osama Ben Laden, John Gambino, the World Trade Center bombers.

Then, right after his nomination, he got serious and prosecuted Illinois Governor Georges Ryan.

Ryan was an old time moderate Republican - nothing like the foaming at the mouth self-serving modern type - he actually did some serious good in Illinois: he push for more advanced technological structure for the State and gave more money to school than any of his predecessors to improve the education system. For a Republican, that is short of Mother Theresa status.

But more than this, and how I remembered him, was how he was actually nominated for a Nobel for his role in the re-evaluation of the damage that can be done by the death penalty. He decided to put all death penalty on hold to review the cases where new evidence could help prove the innocence of inmates.

I do not believe in a clean politician anymore that I believe in a clean athlete. Both systems are much too corrupt, ruthless and power hungry to create saints and angels. The elite of these abusive organizations - politics and sports - are the survivors of a bloody fight for dominance that leaves no hand unsullied. As they say, you have to want it to win it. And you have to want it badly enough.

George Ryan was caught with his hands in all the honey jar and Fitzgerald had made a name for himself giving him 6 1/2 years. Then he went against Democrat mayor Richard Daley, top gubernatorial fundraiser Antoine Rezko and just yesterday it was Governor Blagojevich that learn that the wrath of a boy scout is no laughing matter.

I know that Fitzgerald also gave Scooter Libby 2 years and 250,00$ fine but, seriously, what was that about? Bush quickly commuted the sentence and that was that. Who's surprised? Rove, who was mentioned as being one of the senior White House advisers who knew about Plame, did not even testify. After all, Fitzgerald was appointed as a replacement to former nut case Attorney General John Ashcroft by James Comey, now senior vice president of Lockheed Martin. Comey lives in the grey zone: he did not testify against Alberto Gonzales directly before a Congressional committee but he did oppose the NSA Domestic wiretaping program.

Where is Fitzgerald in that grey zone? Can he be politically manipulated? Does he want to be? Can the Repug dangle Obama before his eyes - the biggest catch of his life for sure - in exchange for carte blanche in the prosecution. Exactly as what happened in 1994-1999. Remember that Kenneth Starr too was praised for fairness and neutrality by Democrats in 1990 and the Department of Justice leaders were afraid that he wouldn't be conservative enough to be appointed as a Supreme Court Justice by Bush sr.

We know how Starr showed them just how good his good conservative side was after that. Whitewater, Vince Foster, Paula Jones, Monica L, Richard Scaife, spit out gum, anything that would stick, Starr will find and play pin the donkey with it.

Already the right wing blogosphere is trying to ducktape together Rezko, Joseph Aramanda and Obama and begging Fitzgerald to give them a bone. Any human bone. A Black human, if possible.

I know that he was threaten by the Bush administration, I know all about his good attorney awards but while other US attorney lost their jobs in 2006 to Mr. Judicial Activist and Toddler Supreme Alberto Gonzales' whims and fancy, he kept his anyway.

No, its not a crime of course, to survive. But he was in their face and he survived. Hope he stays neutral and fair for all and not only for Fox News viewers.

As for Kenneth Star, he's taking of his new client business, protecting and serving Blackwater Security Consulting. Life is good, Kenneth!