Only in America

Leftists who demonize President Bush and former Attorney General Ashcroft may be surprised to learn that the Justice Department has been helping former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich deal with legal problems that arose from his campaign. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer (scroll down), Ashcroft’s Justice Department ordered the U.S. Attorney in Cleveland to defend a libel suit brought against the left-wing Congressman. That action saved Kucinich from having to hire high-priced attorneys to defend him. And it will save Kucinich from having to pay the judgment if he loses the case. Apparently, though, the case is about to be dismissed.
The underlying suit stems from Kucinich’s attempt, during his presidential campaign, to defend himself from charges that he started his political career as a racist. Kucinich’s defense was that certain racist pamphlets associated with one of his early campaigns were the responsibility of a man named Socha, and that Kucinich distanced himself from the pamphlets. When Kucinich published this defense, Socha sued him for defamation. The Justice Department stepped in to defend Kucinich on the generous theory that, even though the statement in question was uttered by Kucinich in furtherance of his presidential campaign, the statement also helped him preserve his effectiveness as a Congressman, and thus was made in the scope of his government employment.

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