How often does a Mike Nifong come along?  Well, those lucky devils in Harris County, Texas, have a District Attorney of their own to ridicule, and to tell you the truth, I’m jealous.  Green with envy.  I’m stuck with Robert Morgenthau, who has not only been New York County District Attorney forever, but is the epitome of what a District Attorney should be.

Now the Texas Tornado, Mark Bennett, is a lucky guy.  He’s got Chuck Rosenthal.  Chuck is the sort of DA that provides a veritable cornucopia of dirt.  Not only does he dig himself into a hole, but when he gets caught, he just keeps digging.  How often does that happen?

Bennett’s been posting about Chuck for a while not, starting with his emails expressing his sexual feelings toward his assistant that caused him to drop out of his race for re-election, and up to yesterday’s testimony in federal court where he can’t seem to remember how or why he destroyed a bunch of email evidence.  He may not suffer from TBI, but he apparently has a severe case of CRS.

Bennett has been detailing the life and times of Chuck Rosenthal for a while, breaking news about Harris County’s own little DA from Hell.  The rest of the blawgosphere, not to mention mainstream media (including our own Gray Lady, the New York Times) picked up on this slice of heaven to tell the sorry tale of Rosenthal’s fall from grace.  But few have given credit to the mother-load of Chuck Rosenthal’s misdeed.

This is a great tale of hubris, and has been told in wonderful detail by Bennett.  It’s a shame that other blawgs and mainstream media have enjoyed the benefits of Bennett’s efforts but have failed to give attribution to the source.  This is one of the more unfortunate and despicable things about the internet, where people can locate stories that they would otherwise never know about and take them as if they figured something out all on their own.  It angers me that people don’t give credit where it’s due.  When it comes to Chuck Rosenthal, it’s due Bennett. 

I just want anyone who reads Simple Justice to know that this is all Bennett’s doing, and everyone else is just stealing from him and feeding off his efforts.  Bennett did the work and deserves to get the credit.