WEBSTER INVESTIGATION SHOULD FISH OR CUT BAIT

The old saying goes that justice delayed is justice denied. If that is true, justice has certainly been denied in the case of the federal government against former Attorney General Bill Webster. An investigation into his supposed transgressions in office, including handling of a statewide Second Injury Fund, has dragged itself along a course from rumor to legend without the weight of tangible evidence and any semblance of legal resolution. Though never charged with any wrongdoing, Webster sees his political career in ruins and his name tarnished. Webster is tired on it and is now saying so. The public should be tired of it, as well.

We have no idea if Bill Webster violated any laws. We have no idea what the outcome of this investigation by U.S. attorneys and federal grand juries will turn up. What we know is that the Second Injury Fund allegations have been around for more than a year, that dozens of Webster associates have been called before grand juries in Springfield during that time and nothing has turned up to indicate that Webster did anything illegal.

During the time the federal authorities have strolled through their inquiry, Webster watched his bid for the governorship collapse ... a circumstance that contributed to a domino line of other statewide losses by persons of his political party. Again, all of this came about as a result of suspicions emerging from the investigation, with nothing proven, nothing documented.

In recent weeks, Webster went on the offensive in Missouri, telling federal investigators to, in effect, put up or shut up. The former attorney general expressed a desire to get on with his life and that remains impossible with authorities puzzling over scraps of evidence that seem to point to nothing resembling a criminal charge.

All of this has an eerie echo to an investigation that ruined the political career of a Southeast Missourian of some note, former Gov. Warren E. Hearnes of Charleston. Hearnes, a two-time chief executive of the state, was the target of a six-year investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and federal grand juries. At taxpayer expense, the government tried to uncover corruption in his administration. Hearnes was never charged with a crime, but his career was destroyed.

F. Russell Millin, who ran for the U.S. Senate against Hearnes in 1976 (both were unsuccessful in the effort), was a former U.S. attorney. He said this about the federal investigation against his primary opponent: "This business of the government using grand juries to conduct highly publicized fishing expeditions over a period of months and years is wrong. ... It unfairly drags names and reputations through the mud. The government should abandon its improper use of grand juries and either fish or cut bait."

That was 17 years ago, but the advice is good today. The government should fish or cut bait in the case of Bill Webster. If there is evidence against the former attorney general, if it can be proven he misused his office, we say nail him to the wall. But investigations of this sort can't be allowed to drag on, ruining lives and staining justice as they go.