The recent raids on and investigations of Cuyahoga County officials Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo, coupled with the ongoing scrutiny of former County Recorder Pat O’Malley by various branches of the federal government raises a number of issues.

 In the case of O’Malley, what the Feds ultimately utilized to bring about his undoing should be of concern to thinking citizens who fear arbitrary use of the law to selectively target individuals. And in the case of the other two men, there is the tricky issue of whether or not the Feds should be involved in local matters to such a huge extent that they send an army to, among other things, question county employees about their involvement in political campaigns. And to go another layer deeper, perhaps someone should ask who, in both Washington and Cleveland’s corporate-civic-media establishment (I don’t include the term political here, since Cleveland’s establishment politicians function basically as lackeys), wants to see the aforementioned trio out of power.

    The Feds originally targeted O’Malley on an alleged conflict of interest issue. Unable to produce anything substantial in this area, they seized onto a child pornography accusation based on evidence produced by Pat’s ex-wife, with whom he has been involved in a extremely volatile divorce proceeding. Unable to substantiate the child porn case enough to garner a conviction, the Feds were able to come up with other “dirty pictures” on O’Malley’s personal computer – material that, while disturbing, has rarely, if ever, been used to prosecute anyone else. Yet at one point, prosecutors were attempting to get an eight-year sentence for O’Malley, who was finally given fifteen months in prison.

    Soon after the powers-that-be began putting the final touches on bringing O’Malley down, an army of federal agents swarmed the County Administration building (and a dozen or so sites around town), seizing mountains of information and  grinding county business to a halt. In addition to Democratic powerbrokers Dimora and Russo, Kevin Kelley (a county official and president of the Parma School Board) was also targeted, with one of the subsequent allegations against him being whether or not he had ever fixed traffic tickets in Berea Municipal Court.

Just within the past few weeks, this already mammoth federal investigation widened to include employees at the Cuyahoga County Metropolitan Housing Authority; officials at the county-run Metrohealth system; the homes of contractors involved with these entities; and the offices of Democratic judges known to be friendly with Russo and/or Dimora.

    In the recent book, “Machiavelli’s Shadow: the Rise and Fall of Karl Rove,” Paul Alexander documents numerous cases of how the guru-like Bush advisor targeted various Democrats at all levels and, arguably, helped turn the Justice Department into a political police force. From reading the book, it’s easy for one to get a sense of déjà vu after observing the recent county crackdown by the Feds.

    It’s also easy to see the Bush Administration’s and Republican Party’s motivation to take Dimora, Russo and O’ Malley down. All three have effective “street” organizations which have played important roles in various county elections. It’s clear that Cuyahoga County will need to deliver big for Barack Obama if he is to carry Ohio. With Dimora and Russo wounded and O’Malley in jail, the Democratic organization in Northeast Ohio has been left weakened enough to help hand Ohio to John McCain.

    But this purge can’t be simply explained as a national GOP plot. The Plain Dealer, which clearly has played an aggressive role in bringing down these three, has long functioned as the mouthpiece of the Cleveland corporate establishment. Known to control local elections, this rather small cadre’s main motivation in involving itself in public affairs is to maintain the kind of environment that allows profits to flow smoothly into the “right” pockets.

    However, politicians who have good street organizations can get elected without relying on the local corporate-media-civic structure (the perfect example is Dennis Kucinich). These politicos are nearly always more independent in the way they conduct their offices and can provide something of a threat to the established powerbrokers.

    Whether or not one accepts the above rationale and whether or not the county officials targeted are guilty, there should be considerable food for thought for the concerned citizen in the events of the past several months. Should the Feds be involved in local events to such a huge extent?  Should either presidential administrations or unelected bureaucrats acting on their own – for personal, ideological or monetary purposes – be able to interfere with local government at will?

Some may feel that all these matters being dealt with by the Feds are worth looking into by the most powerful governmental force available. Others may be of the opinion that since the county prosecutor gets his budget approved by the county commissioners and the state’s attorney general may want the goodwill of community politicians at election time, the Feds are best suited to deal with the monitoring of local officials.

However, the question as to whether dealing with Cuyahoga County internal affairs is the best use of federal dollars or FBI/Justice Department manpower – especially  when there are so many severe economic and security matters facing this country -  is one that won’t easily go away.