Flytrap Forever

Chatterbox bestows the Glutton for Punishment Award on Vermont Sen. Pat Leahy, who has written Attorney General John Ashcroft to demand an investigation into whether Robert Ray, the just-departed Whitewater independent counsel, violated the Hatch Act when he considered, while still leading the Flytrap investigation, a run for the U.S. Senate. (Ray just announced that he will seek the Republican nomination against New Jersey’s Sen. Bob Torricelli.) Judicial Watch, the right-wing litigation mill that harassed the Clinton White House throughout Flytrap, has demanded an investigation about the same thing. Judicial Watch’s chairman, Larry Klayman, is certain that Ray did a rush job on his final report on Flytrap, issued earlier this month, in order to ready his Senate run. (“Mr. Ray hastily concluded his investigation before reviewing over 1.8 million e-mail that several witnesses testified contained incriminating evidence against the Clintons and their administration,” Klayman wrote in his own March 15 letter to Ashcroft.) No word yet on whether Ashcroft will name a special prosecutor.