And Harry Cummins was investigating a Republican Govenor for corruption...
Last October, when Harry E. "Bud" Cummins III, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, closed his investigation into the way Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's administration handled Missouri's license fee offices, he emphasized, "This office does not intend to elaborate further about this closed matter."
We hope that now will change. Mr. Cummins was identified last week as one of at least nine U.S. attorneys around the country who had been asked by the Bush administration to resign so they could replaced by new political appointees. Among the nine are prosecutors who had been pursuing corruption cases against Republican office-holders and contributors.
The message, spoken or unspoken, in the requests for resignations, was "back off of our pals."
Mr. Cummins, who was replaced last week by J. Timothy Griffin, a former operative for White House political director Karl Rove, said that he'd been asked to step down in June. That would have been the time when the fee office investigation was in full swing.
The investigation followed news reports that young staffers and politically connected friends of Mr. Blunt had created management companies to benefit from the sale of drivers licenses and license plates. Another aspect of the story, one never mentioned when the investigation was dismissed, was that Mr. Blunt's office had steered state agencies to politically connected lobbyists.
This is a BLATANT misuse of power to stop embarrassing investigations.