Sunday, July 23, 2006

Bucher Goes All Hissy on Van Hollen

Well, the spittin' and scratchin' began:

"There is no record there," said R.J. Johnson, the no-holds-barred strategist running Bucher's campaign, even going so far as to compare Van Hollen to Al Gore for exaggerating his success as a prosecutor.

To make his point, Johnson cited federal records that show Van Hollen's office tied for 84th out of 94 U.S. attorneys in the country in the number of criminal cases filed in fiscal year 2004. Among the jurisdictions with fewer criminal cases were Rhode Island, Alaska, Delaware, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and Oklahoma's eastern district.

What was not clear, however, is how Van Hollen's numbers compare to districts of comparable size and population.

Johnson dismissed this point.

Van Hollen's team pointed to records that showed a 53% increase in the number of prosecutions during his tenure. In 2002, his office filed 140 criminal complaints, rising to 151 the next year and 186 in 2004.

During Lautenschlager's final year as U.S. attorney in 2001, the office bought criminal charges 121 times. Only five other jurisdictions had fewer new criminal cases that year.

I don't think Bucher is doing himself any favors with this crap; but then, maybe he thinks that's the way to win.

5 comments:

James Wigderson said...

C'mon Dad. Negative campaigning is a legit tactic, and attacking Van Hollen for the Mayberry world of his office is a fair shot. If we can't judge a candidate on his accomplishments, what else is out of bounds?

Besides, hissy? Does that mean the Van Hollen response was wussy?

Dad29 said...

And Bucher's office is not "Mayberry"?

Get serious. Waukesha county is a pretty quiet place--IIRC, that's why you chose to live there.

Fed criminal cases are a little different from local criminal cases. They usually require a fair amount of accounting work, or field investigations.

Not exactly like, say, trying to seduce a 16-year-old when you have a Prominent Name.

We note that Channel 4 brought the perps to Bucher in a more recent child-sex-enticement case.

Easy to come up with criminal prosecutions when you have it all on videotape, eh?

Anonymous said...

I woulk like to hear more from Bucher on how come he has been married three times. What kind of "family values" does he display?

You can say this doesn't matter. But it matters to me as I think it is inconsistent with professing to be a Catholic.

There has been some speculation that the new Pope will declare that divorced people can't take Communion. This isn't idle speculation.

I prefer JB -- married one time.

Dad29 said...

Uhhhnnn...anony...

1) I don't care about Bucher's marital record. I care about his law-enforcement credentials, which happen to be entirely separate. Take your cheap shot and go home.

2) Interesting choice of words: "..can't take Communion." You are not a Catholic, because that is NOT the usual way of phrasing it.

FYI, individuals who have divorced and remarried WITHOUT a decree of nullity are NOT allowed to receive Communion. Never have been, never will be (at least according to Church law, which is ignored by a lot of "priests.")

Individuals who have divorced and have NOT remarried may receive Communion under the usual conditions.

Got it? Good. Now peddle your trash elsewhere.

Dad29 said...

As to you, Brian: I still think JB should have been more interested in "pro-activity" regarding illegals in Wisconsin.

But there are worse things, e.g., Bucher's idea of stopping everyone on I-94 (EVERYONE) in order to find a drunk or two.