The Resignation of Carol Lam
I was planning on writing about Federal Prosecutor Carol Lam’s resignation today, so I started reading about her. Frankly, she’s not all that flamboyant, so I didn’t know much about her.
I had certainly heard about the prosecution of former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham for bribery and tax evasion last year. It’s unusual to see a Republican good-ole-boy being brought down so effectively, especially during a Republican administration. Although I followed the case with fascination, I didn’t remember the prosecutor, as she didn’t make herself the focus of the attention.
I also knew about the prosecution of Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix, the alleged head of a Mexican drug cartel. The Arellano-Felix drug cartel is infamous here in San Diego, but again, I couldn’t have named the prosecutor.
Perhaps that’s the biggest problem with Prosecutor Carol Lam: She needs a better press agent! A good spin doctor would focus the press away from Lam’s high-profile cases, and toward Lam herself. Case in point: I might not remember or recognize the people that famed attorney Gloria Allred has defended or sued over the years, but I immediately recognize her.
Instead, Lam went quietly about the business of prosecuting high profile criminals, looking specifically for cases where she could have the most impact on crime, without regard to politics, case tallies, or even her own job security. Isn’t that what we want from a Federal Prosecutor? How smart. How stupid.
I could go on to write about Carol Lam’s many unheralded accomplishments, as I truly am now a fan. Or I could play Monday morning quarterback, talking about how easy it would have been to make the numbers work in her favor, digging up statistics to prove her impact on crime in the region, getting the P.R. machine working on her behalf before it came to this point.
Instead, I’ll defer to a very well-written and balanced article that appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune yesterday, “Lam’s legacy: U.S. attorney went for quality prosecutions over quantity - it may have cost her her job,” by Greg Moran and Onell R. Soto.
My conclusion: I may not have noticed our Federal Prosecutor until now, but now that I know her, I sure will miss her.
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