Is Todd Graves Also A Victim of Bushite House Cleaning

Who could blame Graves for leaving when he did?
STEVE KRASKE
The Kansas City Star


We know that eight ousted U.S. attorneys got the boot because they no longer were seen as supremely loyal to President Bush.

Now it appears that — to his credit — former U.S. attorney Todd Graves of the Western District of Missouri can be added to the group of eight.

The precise motivation for Graves’ departure in March 2006 may never be known. Based on his brief statement Friday, Graves may not know either.

But, like the others, Graves had not always gone along with the Karl Rove-written GOP playbook when it came to using the Justice Department to improve Republican odds at the polls.

Just a few months before, in November 2005, Graves had refused to sign a Justice Department complaint against the state of Missouri alleging that local election authorities — mostly in rural areas — had failed to properly maintain their voter registration lists. His name eventually appeared on the suit, although he never signed it.

(Democrats claim such voter purges can unfairly remove older folks and poor folks, who are among the party’s core supporters, who move a lot.)

The Justice Department at the time was extremely interested in investigations and prosecutions of voter fraud.

We also know that Graves, from time to time, had acted charitably — others would say “fairly” — toward Democrats. For instance, he once gave Claire McCaskill, now a U.S. senator, a letter that confirmed she had been the “subject” of a federal investigation — not a target — in connection with a drug case involving McCaskill’s office manager when McCaskill was the Jackson County prosecutor.

That letter said that “insufficient information surfaced to merit further inquiry.”

Another time, he hinted that he had dropped a high-profile prosecution of former Jackson County executive Katheryn Shields, a prominent Democrat, over her handling of a county contract.

A third time, he cleared the air during a vicious Shields spat with then-county prosecutor Mike Sanders by issuing a statement that said Sanders, a Democrat, was not under investigation.

Graves was a John Ashcroft guy. He had few, if any, ties to Alberto Gonzales and the new gang at Justice after Ashcroft announced he was stepping down as attorney general in November 2004.

All those things — and maybe even the widely noted, but awkward, fact that Graves’ wife accepted a driver’s license fee office appointment — could have added up to make Graves a replacement target.

There’s also little question that the White House was ready to make a switch. Brad Schlozman was announced as Graves’ replacement just 13 days after Graves revealed he was leaving.

That’s the same Schlozman who authorized the Justice Department lawsuit against Missouri for failure to maintain its voter lists. A federal judge ruled in favor of the state two weeks ago.

“What is going on now in D.C. is a three-ring circus, and I don’t want anything to do with it,” Graves said in his statement.

No one in their right mind can blame him.

•Now this sounds exciting. In the closing days of the legislative session, Kansas lawmakers again are considering a presidential primary.

Here’s the cool part. Lawmakers are saying it should be held Feb. 2. That’s three days before Super Tuesday and just after Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina hold their contests.

In other words, the Kansas primary would be a big deal.

And the election would be on a Saturday, meaning that Kansans would see firsthand the wisdom of a weekend election instead of the traditional workweek Tuesday.

Whether the primary survives last-minute budget wrangling was unclear. But if there ever was a presidential primary worth the money, this one is it.


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