Albany defense lawyer Terry Kindlon writes in:

Let's hope the first thing John Kerry does after he's elected President is appoint Eliot Spitzer of New York his Attorney General, to restore dignity and intelligence to the office. We've all been so distracted by Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz , Perle and the other Chickenhawks killing thousands of innocent people that John Ashcroft has come close to getting away with murder.

US v Rice, in the District of Virginia, is the latest example: In 2002, Ashcroft had a press conference and personally announced he was going to seek the death penalty against Darrell Rice. In 2004, on the eve of trial, the government has admitted it never had enough reliable evidence to even take Rice to trial, much less give him the needle . The way their press release is worded we're supposed to be impressed that DOJ has acted ethically and appropriately--and their point is well taken--it is impressive that they've acted ethically and appropriately. Case dismissed.

Anyway, DOJ's message seems to be, "Sorry for your trouble, Darrell, now scram." Do you think Ashcroft will be blaming the CIA for his lack of intelligence?