lawsuit-happy healey quiet on biden
Democrat Attorney General Maura Healey, who sued former President Donald Trump more than 100 times, has yet to file a single legal action against President Biden.
Surprised? Not really. But what does that tell you?
It tells you that Healey, 50, now running for governor, turned the state’s chief law office into a partisan anti- Trump, Democrat Party campaign headquarters.
Paid for by the taxpayer. Most of the lawsuits went nowhere, but they hurt Trump, which they were designed to do, and they got Healey favorable publicity in left-leaning media outlets.
For example, Healey got fawning press coverage when she filed suit against Trump over the separation of children from their parents crossing the Mexican border illegally.
However, she has not said a word, let alone filed suit, against Biden’s open border policy that has children abandoned at the border by Mexican smugglers. Two such children were found dead in the Rio Grande a week ago. Another 4-year old girl was found huddling alone on the Rio Grande riverbank last week.
Nor has Healey filed any legal action related to the millions of illegal immigrants Biden has encouraged to walk into the country, or even commented on the tons of deadly drugs criminals accompanying them are bringing with them.
But before anyone gets outraged over her partisanship — if there is any outrage left in the country — consider that Healey is looked upon favorably by progressives.
And they will help Healey in her quest to win the Democrat Party convention endorsement for governor as well as the Democrat primary nomination in the September primary.
The only other Democrat running to succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a fellow progressive from Boston.
The two Republicans running are former state Rep. Geoff Diehl and Wrentham businessman Chris Doughty.
Healey was so litigious against Trump that she even sued him as he headed out the door after he was defeated by Biden.
On Trump’s last day in office Healey joined in on several lawsuits that sought to prevent Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency from taking any last-minute actions.
What did she think of Trump?
“It’s outrageous what he has done,” Healey said of Trump in a December 2020 Vanity Fair interview— “his callousness, his incompetence, his narcissism, his bullying, how he he’s hurt so many people.
“Either he’s ignorant or callous or both, and I think members of his family are as well,” she said.
Healey’s lack of legal action against the Biden administration was spotlighted in the wake of a suit filed a week ago by 14 attorneys general — all Republicans — against the Biden Justice Department.
The suit accuses the Justice Department of failing to respond to a Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request. The request is for information related to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s controversial memo calling on the FBI to investigate threats of violence against board members by parents at school committee meetings.
While Healey, as well as most other politicians, are for transparency in government — or say they are — she is not one the supporters. That is simply because the suit was filed by Republicans against a Democrat president and Healey is a Democrat.
But Healey’s politicization of the office is not all her fault. Her actions are just another sign of the politicization of the country.
Everything is political now, even justice.
There was a time when all the attorneys general were members of the nonpartisan National Association of Attorneys General, formed a hundred years ago.
Then it split. In 1999 the Republicans founded the Republican Attorneys General Association. Three years later the Democrats started the Democrat Attorneys General Association.
All balance is gone. The state’s attorneys general are as divided as the country. Democrats sue Republican presidents and Republicans sue Democrat presidents.
It is too bad they just don’t sue each other.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.