When George W. Bush’s Justice Department unexpectedly fired nine U.S. Attorneys — all of them Republicans — in 2007 to make room for supporters of the president, there was an outcry among much of the national press and quite a few Democrats.
One of the Democrats who criticized Bush’s move was Jimmy Carter. Reminded in an interview that his administration had fired a Republican-appointed U.S. Attorney in 1978, the 39th president responded that this situation was different, that the U.S. Attorney he fired was an out-of-control partisan figure and he wanted federal prosecutors who were above politics.
“After all those years of teaching Sunday school, Jimmy Carter still hasn’t learned to tell the truth,” the former U.S. Attorney in question, David W. Marston of Eastern Pennsylvania, told me at the time.
Marston then went on to explain that at the time of his firing by Carter’s Attorney General Griffin Bell, he was conducting an investigation of alleged corruption by then-Rep. Joshua Eilberg — who on November 4, 1977, called Carter at the White House to demand the firing of Marston. Carter then called Bell and told the attorney general to “hurry up” with a replacement for Marston.
In January of ’78, the Carter Administration tapped Illinois native Peter E. Vaira, Jr. as the new U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Eilberg was beaten for re-election in the fall and went on to plead guilty to conflict of interest charges.
As for Dave Marston, who died Friday at age 80, he was almost universally regarded among fellow law enforcers and the Keystone State legal community as a man of honor — and one above politics. In the nearly two years he served as U.S. Attorney, Marston successfully prosecuted Eilberg and fellow Democratic Rep. Dan Flood (who finally resigned from Congress as charges of malfeasance mounted), powerful Democratic State Sen. Henry Cianfrani (who went down on racketeering charges) and state House Speaker Herbert Fineman (illegal gratuities), and the Republican chairman of Chester County.
Marston also pursued charges of police brutality by the Philadelphia Police Department under Commissioner (and later Mayor) Frank Rizzo — not exactly an agenda to endear him to conservatives but one he felt was justified.
“And remember — I was doing just what Carter wanted U.S. Attorneys to do,” Marston told us in 2007, recalling that Carter had promised if elected to “appoint and retain [U.S.] attorneys solely on merit,” a reform commitment that was even written into the Democratic platform of 1976.
Some Republicans saw in the fired prosecutor a potential political star. Soon after his removal as U.S. Attorney, Marston jumped into the crowded Republican primary for governor. He had the blessings of his former boss and political mentor, then-Sen. Richard Schweiker, and the endorsement of Citizens for the Republican (CFTR), the political action committee of Ronald Reagan. But Marston placed fourth in a primary topped by Dick Thornburgh (who went on to be governor and later U.S. Attorney General) and in which Sen.-to-be Arlen Specter placed second.
In 1979, Marston carried the generally unwanted Republican standard for mayor of Philadelphia. In such a heavily Democratic city, it was no surprise when Marston lost badly to former Rep. William Green, III.
Finished with politics before he was 40, Marston spent the remaining four decades of his life on his true passion — the practice of law, for which he trained most of his early life.
Born in Maryville, Tennessee and a graduate of Maryville College, the young Marston earned his law degree at Harvard before spending two years in the U.S. Navy. Settling with wife Linda in Philadelphia, he engaged in private practice. But his passion for politics led to his making two unsuccessful races for the state legislature. Sen. Schweiker then named Marston as his legislative director in 1973.
When Reagan sought and narrowly lost the Republican presidential nomination to Gerald Ford in 1976, his campaign launched an unusual move: naming Schweiker as the vice-presidential candidate before the national convention and nomination for president. The Schweiker maneuver fell short and Ford was nominated. In June of ’76, two months before the convention, Ford honored the request of his onetime House colleague Schweiker and appointed Marston U.S. Attorney.
Dave Marston never won any of the four attempts he made at elective office. His expertise was not so much politics but the law at which he studied so hard and enforced with fairness and honor.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.