Ten days ago, Rudy Giuliani bragged on “Meet the Press” that he had “turned around” the U.S. Atty office that he had inherited from his predecessor, John Martin.  Martin has now taken understandable exception to Giuliani’s embellishment - small by political standards – and opines that anyone remotely connected with law enforcement knows the Southern District of New York’s has long been considered the gold standard for federal law enforcement.  The implication from his belated statement, the significance of which resonates from Lower Manhattan to the Riverdale, nonetheless has caused me to reflect on a parallel issue that impacts the world of state attorneys general.

Forty-three attorneys general are elected officials and obviously campaign to “turn around” their respective offices.   Even the unelected attorneys general declare in their inauguration that they will make changes to their offices. Most state observers would agree with Martin when in defending his office from Rudy’s braggadocio he notes that prosecution offices are overwhelmingly made up of career professionals who work for years to make our legal system one of justice and now whim.  And to that characterization, I can only add a hearty “Amen!”

That being said, I certainly did my share of bragging during my ten years as attorney general.  I took the credit for the efforts of the staff with whom I worked.  (Even now, I hesitate to say “who worked for me,” because we all worked to uphold the same laws.)  But was I wrong to hold those press conferences to take credit for the work of others?  I think not. As the Attorney General of Maine, it really was up to me to set the tone and the priorities.  And certainly when things went wrong, as they sometimes did, I was the one who had to look into the cameras and take responsibility.

Because I do not believe that laws should be enforced in secret, I really do not have a problem with a U.S. Attorney or an Attorney General standing up to claim the credit along with accepting the blame of all that transpires within a prosecutorial office.  It just comes with the territory.  

The end result of all this is that when we leave office and pass the honor of being AG to our successors, we just have to grit our teeth when he or she looks into the camera and says that it is time to shake up their new office and “turn it around.”