The Chicago Tribune quotes former U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, the Illinois Republican, to the effect that Bush aide Karl Rove wanted a partisan hack appointed as U.S. attorney in northern Illinois (including the Rockford area) to avoid prosecution of corrupt GOPers like former Gov. George Ryan.
Fitzgerald resisted the pressure and nominated Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation) for the post. The rest, as they say, is history.
Prosecutor Fitzgerald went on to nail Ryan, among others, and later was appointed to handle the CIA leak investigation, which led to the recent conviction of Scooter Libby, former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.
The Libby prosecution made Fitzpatrick immune from recent Bush administration dismissals of certain U.S. attorneys deemed insufficiently loyal to the Republican Party. That's a point The Rascal made in this entry of nearly two weeks ago.
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