UMass president William M. Bulger, our former state senator and South Boston neighbor, has once again come under relentless assault from Boston's daily newspapers. This week, the Herald and Globe have disgraced themselves in an attempt to link President Bulger with the misdeeds of his brother, the alleged mob boss James 'Whitey' Bulger.

A Congressional committee ostensibly investigating the FBI's relationship with organized crime has demanded that Bill Bulger testify in what will certainly be a media circus at the federal court house.

Committee chairman Congressman Danny Burton (R-Indiana,) is notorious for having led a witch-hunt against Hillary Clinton several years ago. Burton is a publicity stunt waiting to happen, a habitual headline-fiend whose transgressions include improperly releasing an edited transcript of a private phone conversation of Clinton associate Webster Hubbell. Our man Burton withheld portions of that conversation that seemed to exonerate the First Lady, an act that earned him a rare public censure from his colleagues in the Congress. With no honor himself, Burton practices the politics of "the ends justify the means," and historically is reckless about the reputation of others.

In 1998, Capitol Hill watchdog reporter Russ Baker reports, the Chicago Tribune said in an editorial, "Dan Burton is a crude, crass man who is a disgrace to his district, his state, his party and the House.

It's clear that Burton's main purpose in calling Bulger to the stand is to publicly humiliate one of our city's most distinguished public servants. If Bulger decides to indulge the Hoosier's whim, many of Bulger's former constituents fully expect that it will be Burton who finds himself on the hot seat.

For one thing, Bulger, willingly and quite reasonably, fulfilled his obligation to cooperate with law enforcement about his relationship with his brother, including voluntarily answering questions of a federal grand jury.

Grand jury testimony is always sealed, and it is against the law to make transcripts public. Yet that "secret", two-hour grand jury testimony was illegally leaked to the Boston Globe, which reported on it this week.

Make no mistake: someone in a sensitive position, charged with upholding the law, in fact violated federal law by making the testimony public. No one outside the grand jury room is entitled to know what was said in there, let alone receive a full transcript of the testimony.

Burton should demand an inquiry into who broke that law: a member of his staff, perhaps, or a mole in the federal attorney's office? We suspect someone with their own political agenda. But as one attorney said recently, "Don't hold your breath."

The injustice that is being done to Bill Bulger this week is a travesty. There are those who would say that he deserves it, given what his brother has allegedly done over the years. But no one should ever be tried and convicted on the basis of pure speculation or even family ties. Who among us should be asked to take on the sins of our siblings, relatives or friends as if they were our own?

We hope that this latest attempt to destroy the reputation of President Bulger will prove as futile and as baseless as the many that have come before it.

We hope, too, that this man Burton has his own day of reckoning.

-Ed Forry