The Star Tribune assigned reporter Dan Browning to look into the allegations swirling around United States Attorney for Minnesota Rachel Paulose and gave him plenty of time to do it. He also had the assistance of reporter Pam Louwagie in his work on the story. I believe that Browning spared no effort to come up with information that would substantiate any of the disparagement Rachel has suffered at the hands of nuts like Paul Krugman as well as the usually astute David Frum. (Frum did not respond to my email asking him to substantiate his derogation of Rachel in the linked post.) I think its's fair to say that Browning comes up dry in "As some wonder about fast rise, Paulose says theories are off base." Browning does not find those who worked with Rachel prior to her appointment to offer any criticism of her. On the contrary, they seem to think highly of her:

In October 2002, Paulose jumped into private practice at Williams & Connolly in Washington. But family health issues a year later brought her back to Minnesota, where she took a job at Dorsey & Whitney.

Williams & Connolly was sorry to see her go, said partner David Kendall, an attorney for former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, both Democrats.

Dan Lainsbury, a Wells Fargo attorney who worked for Paulose at Dorsey & Whitney, described her as a "fantastic" lawyer, supervisor and colleague.

Browning also checked with local law enforcement authorities to see what they had to say about Rachel, who has now been on the job as United States Attorney for over a year:

St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington, who has a degree in religious studies [from Dartmouth], said that he has spoken with Paulose about religion but that her politics have never come up. When one of her prosecutors failed to file paperwork that resulted in the release of a career criminal who went on to become a suspect in several homicides, Paulose called and apologized personally, Harrington said.

"I've never had a prosecutor do that when they lost a case," he said.

Several other federal and local law enforcement agencies also report good relations.

Last week Browning filed a story that investigated and rejected the cockamamie fantasies of the paper's own editorial board and the paper's own (worst) columnist Nick Coleman, who, like Krugman and Frum, have hit and run.

JOHN adds: I made my comments on this story here, in the Forum.

To comment on this post, go here.