Patrick Fitzgerald : Legal Trailblazer

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

The old playbook for federal prosecutors used to go something like this:

* Don't indict White House officials who leak state secrets. Every administration does it but you can't prove it.

* Don't put reporters in jail. They're too noisy.

* You can't make patronage at Chicago's City Hall a federal crime. It is a civil violation -- and a way of life.

Patrick Fitzgerald never read the old playbook. He files charges where others fear to tread.

That's why the U.S. attorney in Chicago was chosen to head the White House leak investigation.

Fitzgerald fears no target -- the mayor, the governor, the vice president's chief of staff. His lack of ambition for higher office blinds him to trouble his prosecutions cause leaders of either party or the New York Times editorial page, which railed against him seven times over 85 days for jailing reporter Judith Miller.

Read the whole article to find out how he wound up in Chicago.