US Attorney Deserves Better from NWI

On Friday, 01/12/2007, Rich James usual Friday editorial column ran.  James wrote about the the nomination of U.S. Attorney Joe Van Bokkelen to a federal judgeship.  If I had not read the column myself, I would not believe that someone could write such criticism of the one person who has effectively brought some level of civility and lawfulness to the public arena of NWI. 

For those who did not see the column here is a link to it:

Van_Bokkelen_Judgeship.htm

I had often been told that James is "in the pockets" of the Democratic powers that be, but I always gave him the benefit of the doubt.  His column on Van Bokkelen, though, looks like the rumor has legs.  What James said about Van Bokkelen could only be done by an individual that is so partisan, so "in the pockets" of the Democratic powers, and so blind to the basic thievery that has been going on by public officials in NWI, that it goes beyond mere partisanship.  James should rename his column "The Weekly Democratic Stump."  By the way, were was Rich James over the past twenty-years when he could not find a white-collar political crime to criticize? 

The essential argument of the piece is that Mr. Van Bokkelen is being rewarded for his partisan attack on the Lake County Democratic Party.  For example, the reason given for Van Bokkelen even becoming the U. S. Attorney for the Northern District is "the lure of being in a position to dismantle the Lake County Democratic Party was too much to turn down."  There is neither evidence that this even went through Van Bokkelen's mind nor that it even went into his consideration of any of the work that he has done as U. S. Attorney.

Quite the opposite.  Mr. Van Bokkelen has been the only saving grace for NWI in its pursuit for some ethical political basis.  True, he has been at the center of making a dent in a criminal enterprise called the Lake County Democratic Party; but, who has ever complained about that.  Only the criminals themselves.  Now extraordinarily, these same criminals have a defender in their corner in the editorial columns of the Post-Tribune.

Several years ago I sat at a meeting of a number of Democratic candidates and city and town chairmen from Lake County.  In this meeting, the former Lake County Democratic Chair Steve (Stig) Stiglich gave the same argument about what the U. S. Attorney and also Steve Carter the Indiana State Attorney were doing: "This is not about crime (theft, extortion, ghost-pay-rolling, voting irregularities, etc.) this is solely a partisan attack of Republicans against the Democrats."  And why is this occurring?  Stig's answer was because the Republicans are in power and they can.  He further argued that this is what the Lake County Democratic Party needs to sell to the voters.  Essentially what they sold to the voters is that this is not about the criminal enterprise called the Lake County Democratic Party, this is about partisan politics and and Republicans have no sense of humor.

Even many of the people in the room did not buy this story.  But now we have James re-inventing this story and weaving it into an explanation for why Von Bokkelen was nominated to the Federal Bench.

It is truly insulting and accurately reflects what is wrong and continues to be wrong in NWI and in particular Lake County.  Rather than thanking a person who has truly made a difference in NWI ethical behavior and reinforcing both the government's action and the fact that the citizens of NWI will not accept the kind of behavior that over 35 people have been convicted of, we have Rich James showing the worst side of NWI by turning the conviction of thieves, liars, and charlatans into a partisan meaningless act.

For the citizens of NWI who care about its future, I want to thank Mr. Van Bokkelen for his hard work and effort in correcting the cesspool that is NWI Democratic Politics.  He is really going to be missed.  The history of U. S. attorneys in NWI has been far from stellar.  They have usually been as effective as Bernie Carter in shutting down political crime.

To the Dutchman, "Joe we in Lake County are really going to miss your effort; but our best wishes go with you as a judge.  We hope that your successor will keep up your honest and effective tradition."

Comments

[chris]

Couldn't you at least spell the man's name right, PROFESSOR?

It's VanBokkelen. Not Von......

[Saul Lerner]

You're a jerk Maurice

[maprap]

Another excellent post. And, it's about time you moderated the comments -- there is just no reason to let pathetic sycophants spew their vomit indiscriminately.