Coakley; The unprosecuted; DeMasi, Wilkerson, Turner

Crushes the Amiraults, but lets these guys off the hook. If it weren't for the Feds, they would still be in power.

Savvy politics doesn't always make for great policy, though. Take, for instance, the cases Coakley didn't prosecute as AG. Though she's gone after public officials, the three biggest public-corruption cases of the past three years—the only three that anyone remembers—saw her sitting on the sidelines. The indictment of former House Speaker Sal DiMasi for allegedly receiving payments for state software contracts that he helped push through; the indictments of state Senator Dianne Wilkerson and Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner for allegedly accepting bribe money from undercover FBI agents—Coakley didn't charge any of these people with crimes. The U.S. Attorney's Office did. The FBI had video proof of Wilkerson stuffing bribe money into her bra. Coakley did nothing. The Globe and Secretary of State William Galvin hammered DiMasi and his 
(allegedly) shady friends for 14 months. And the best Coakley could do was indict DiMasi's golfing buddy Richard Vitale? On misdemeanor charges?
Coakley knows that pouncing on big-name prey (like Goldman Sachs) will score headlines and position her as a tough prosecutor. But she also knows toughness will get her only so far. As AG, Scott Harshbarger nailed all sorts of public officials in the 1990s, and paid the price: When he ran for governor in 1998, he did it without the help of state Democrats, many of whom he'd angered at some point. Harshbarger lost.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/running_scared_martha_coakley/page2