America, and the American democracy, is perhaps weaker today than at any time in living memory because the rampant corruption of the George W. Bush "administration" has so thoroughly destroyed the credibility of the United States Department of Justice that virtually all cases of alleged public corruption being prosecuted anywhere in the country today are suspect.

According to a study published by communications professors Donald C. Shields and John F. Cragan (available at ePluribus Media), nearly 80% of all federal investigations undertaken by the Bush DoJ and targeting elected officials or candidates were aimed at Democrats, with under 18% targeting Republicans. Around the country, that's 298 investigations of Democrats versus just 67 investigations of Republicans. Shields and Cragan theorize:

We believe that this tremendous disparity is politically motivated and it occurs because the local (non-state-wide and non-Congressional) investigations occur under the radar of a diligent national press. Each instance is treated by a local beat reporter as an isolated case that is only of local interest.

Anyone who's had even the most passing interest in almost any public corruption investigation knows that the first line of defense for the accused is to claim to be the target of a "partisan witch hunt." It's a dusty old saw, but the bizarre and frankly sickening tale of systemic corruption unfolding within the highest ranks of the Bush "administration" has given it new life, and new validity.

The Attorney General's effort to limit the scope of this scandal by framing this as a failure of communication in which "incomplete information" was transmitted to Congress fails to grasp the larger disaster involved, which goes well beyond the issues of what information was or wasn't shared.

At a minimum, this massive breach of public trust is going to require wholesale firings from the top ranks of the Department of Justice, and a serious investigation into the political practices of the Bush White House. There's now virtually no way the DoJ can creditably police public corruption cases anywhere in the United States given what we've learned in the past few days, especially when coupled with the numbers exhibited in the Shields, Cragan report.

The Department of Justice, as it is now constituted, cannot be relied upon to protect Americans from the corrosive effects of real public corruption, due to their own outrageous politicization and overreaching. In some cases, no doubt, years of serious investigative work by honest and thoroughly professional federal investigators is going to be cast in doubt by the Bush "administration's" criminality. In an age in which we are constantly reminded of the dangers we face from the threat of international terrorism, few things could deal such a direct and damaging blow to national security -- especially in light of the simultaneous discovery of rampant abuses at the FBI -- than the revelation that the Department of Justice itself is being run like a Nixonian boiler room operation.

There is, once again, a cancer on the presidency.