I AM THE FORCE

Fascinating filing today by Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard. In the brief for Judge Ebert, Blanchard argues that Scott Jensen's "everyone was doing it" defense should not be allowed in the upcoming trial. Blanchard claims that it doesn't make any difference if others were breaking the same laws, and that District Attorneys are empowered to pick and choose who they would like to prosecute.

There is apparently no reason to expect equal treatment for all those investigated in the Blanchard John Doe proceedings. Blanchard basically admits that Jensen could demonstrate that many other capitol leaders engaged in the very same behavior, but goes on to say that he doesn't have to prosecute those other figures if he doesn't want to. So, how is that decision made? Do you just prosecute the people you don't like, and protect your friends or partisan associates? Or perhaps he just doesn't bother the "good guys" like Tom Loftus, who Blanchard asserts was just kidding around in his book while making admissions about similar wrongdoing.

What Jensen did, what Krug did, what Panzer did, what Chvala did, what Brancel did, what Prosser did, what Kunicki did, and what Loftus did was definitely wrong. But selective prosecution based on the subjective preferences of the district attorney violates every standard of fairness. This is precisely why the caucus scandal should have ended at the time of the Ethics and Elections Boards settlement and dissolution of the caucuses. If you aren't going to go after all of the ringleaders, it undercuts your ability to go after one or two of them.

I'm not arguing that the "everyone was doing it" defense should be adequate for an acquittal, and I still can't envision a Jensen strategy that will be able to win over a Dane County jury. But it does suck, and it isn't fair. And all of you "holier than thou" bloggers out there ought to be willing to admit it. And even if you're a Jensen hater, you should still fear a system that crushes only select violators. Many of you may be tempting targets.