What the prosecutor said

William C. Ibershof, lead prosecutor of the Weathermen, in a letter to today's New York Times:

As the lead federal prosecutor of the Weathermen in the 1970s (I was then chief of the criminal division in the Eastern District of Michigan and took over the Weathermen prosecution in 1972), I am amazed and outraged that Senator Barack Obama is being linked to William Ayers’s terrorist activities 40 years ago when Mr. Obama was, as he has noted, just a child.
Although I dearly wanted to obtain convictions against all the Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, I am very pleased to learn that he has become a responsible citizen.
Because Senator Obama recently served on a board of a charitable organization with Mr. Ayers cannot possibly link the senator to acts perpetrated by Mr. Ayers so many years ago.
I do take issue with the statement in your news article that the Weathermen indictment was dismissed because of “prosecutorial misconduct.” It was dismissed because of illegal activities, including wiretaps, break-ins and mail interceptions, initiated by John N. Mitchell, attorney general at that time, and W. Mark Felt, an F.B.I. assistant director.

Bill Ayers vs. stock market crash vs. Alaska Independence Party

And the list goes on. If we play the guilt by association game, while Obama's connections with Bill Ayers seem pretty remote, Sarah Palin's husband belonged to the Alaska Independence Party for seven years, an organization which advocates the secession of Alaska from the United States and has established links with other state secessionist organizations, some of which promote white supremacy. And McCain in the past served on the board of directors of an organization affilited with the radical right wing World Anti-Communist League, described by the Anti-Defamation League as 'a gathering place, a forum, and a point of contact for extremists, racists, and anti-Semites.'

Meanwhile the stock market continues its alarming crash. I would really like to see the candidates spend the remaining weeks addressing this issue, rather than playing the guilt by association game. After all, why would McCain suspend his campaign for a few days to urge Congress to pass the bailout legislation yet ignore the exacerbating economic problems that have taken place since it was passed?