A Times Editorial

A watchdog for the people

Miss Cleo, Bob Butterworth is on the line. You should have been expecting his call.

Florida's attorney general, who has aggressively targeted consumer fraud, has gone after Miss Cleo, the telephone psychic who advertises widely with an offer of free advice. Because the "free" call often ends up costing consumers $100 or more due to manipulations by telemarketers at the other end, Butterworth is going to court to put the psychic and the corporation behind her out of business.

The suit is just another day on the job for the man AdWeek magazine named one of the nation's "10 Most Feared Attorney Generals." Butterworth has spent a career fighting consumer fraud and those who would take advantage of Florida's vulnerable elderly population. But we won't have him serving that role much longer. The state's longest-serving attorney general is being term-limited out of office. The choice of his replacement will determine whether the Sunshine State remains on the alert for con men -- even those in bank and insurance offices -- or whether it will revert to the swampy bog of flimflam artists and swindlers it once was.

Since Butterworth came to office, he has made the attorney general's office a true advocate of the people. When First Union National Bank of Florida was charging car buyers for excess insurance, he obtained a $26-million settlement. When Prudential Insurance Co. tricked the elderly into purchasing unnecessary life insurance, he helped get them refunds. He has taken on misleading sweepstakes, predatory home equity loan companies, rigged casino boats and pharmacies that overcharged customers for prescription drugs by having cashiers push extra cash-register buttons. If the consumer is being duped by an unscrupulous business practice, Butterworth has made it his business to be on the case.

Butterworth and the two attorneys general who preceded him have been committed to apolitical, nonideological law enforcement. Not all the candidates waiting in the wings share those values.

For example, if his successor is Education Commissioner Charlie Crist, who has raised the most money and is considered the favorite for the Republican nomination, there is little in his record to suggest he will be as tough on consumer fraud as Butterworth has been. Instead, Crist is ever ready to use his office -- whichever one he is in at the moment -- to do his political party's bidding.

Butterworth has shown us that the attorney general's office can and should be a nonpolitical watchdog for the people's interests. Too bad term limits dealt a major setback to consumer interests in Florida.

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