“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by poet T.S. Eliot shares the story of a sexually frustrated middle-aged man who wants to express his true feelings but is afraid to speak his mind.

“The Love Song of (Fulton County) D.A. Fani Willis” tells the tragic tale of a woman whose lust for power was exceeded by her lust for another woman’s husband, and now she faces embarrassment and possibly even legal ramifications for accusations based on her sordid affair with a married man.

Look for any parallels you might find between Eliot’s poem and the life and times of Fani Willis.

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table ...

No one has ever accused Fani Willis of being the sharpest tool in the shed.

Fulton County Superior Court judge Robert McBurney said about Willis hosting a 2022 fundraiser for a Democrat candidate opposing a potential target of her investigation, “It’s a ‘What are you thinking?’ moment.  The optics are horrific.”

When people believe they are above the law, they tend to do as they please.  Case in point: D.A. Willis apparently hired her boyfriend, Nathan Wade, to help prosecute former president Donald Trump under a RICO statute.  Even though Mr. Wade has no experience trying RICO cases, she is paying him the exorbitant rate of $250 per hour.  Thus far, Wade has billed the state of Georgia for more than $728,000 in legal fees.  Contrast his salary with attorney John Floyd, a recognized expert on RICO prosecutions, also assigned to the Trump case, who is making $150 per hour.  Mr. Wade is black, and Mr. Floyd is white.

There are only two possible explanations for why Mr. Wade should earn $100 more per hour than Mr. Floyd for doing the same work on the same case: either race played a role in the pay discrepancy or the personal relationship between Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis played a role.  Ms. Willis hired her lover at the maximum hourly rate despite his lack of experience with handling such cases and has reaped the benefit of their romantic relationship by taking extravagant trips to Belize and Aruba, cruises in the Caribbean, and even a champagne and caviar tasting in Napa Valley.

What, no balloon rides?  All courtesy of Georgia taxpayers.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

Ms. Willis (and Mr. Wade) claims she reimbursed Mr. Wade with cash she just happened to have lying around the house.  Apparently, she doesn’t have a checking account.  In virtually every other instance where she reimbursed others for her personal expenses, she used Cash App instead of paying with actual cash, but in the instance of reimbursing Mr. Wade for far more money, she used actual currency — currency that never shows as being deposited into Mr. Wade’s bank.

Ms. Willis didn’t have to get involved in a political prosecution of former President Trump, but Joe Biden and the White House wanted him prosecuted, and she wanted to be a good Democrat and toe the party line.  She didn’t have to hire Mr. Wade.  She thought she could get away with it.

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?

Ms. Willis got on the stand and may have gotten herself disbarred when she defiantly said, “Do you think I’m on trial?  These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020.  I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”

However, she said this while on the witness stand after the allegations of her romantic involvement with Mr. Wade first surfaced, leading the judge to call for this hearing to decide whether Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade should be removed from the special prosecution or not, and it’s not looking very good for Ms. Willis.

And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

Hiring your inexperienced lover and paying him considerably more than his associates is unethical and immoral, but it might not be illegal.  But what is illegal is committing perjury, and that seems to be the biggest current problem for Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade.  Both swore in court documents that their romantic relationship did not begin until early 2022, after Mr. Wade was hired in November 2021.  However, Willis’s friend Robin Bryant-Yeartie testified under oath that she had no doubt that the relationship between Willis and Wade began as early as 2019.

When pressed about documentation or any evidence to support her claim she’d repaid Wade with cash for the extravagant vacations they’d taken together, Ms. Willis defiantly said she had her word and that the testimony of a single witness should be considered good enough.  By that standard, the testimony of Ms. Bryant-Yeartie should also be accepted without corroboration.

But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

Ashleigh Merchant, attorney for Trump co-defendant Mike Roman, made the allegations against Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade that culminated in the need for the hearing, and Ms. Wade was not happy with her.  She said, “Ms. Merchant’s interests are contrary to democracy, your Honor, not to mine,” as if the future of our right to vote depended on her integrity being questioned.

Ms. Willis appears to have made the fatal mistake of assuming the rules don’t apply to her.

Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous —
Almost, at times, the Fool.

The prosecution of President Trump is purely political and designed to prevent him from winning the election this November.  Mafia bosses running a criminal enterprise should be charged under RICO statutes, but not candidates for president.  Linguini-spined Brian Kemp was content to let Willis run roughshod in the judicial system to engineer a corrupt indictment, but an astute defense attorney has accused Willis of adultery and perjury.

The evidence looks damning.  We are being asked to believe, without evidence, that Ms. Willis reimbursed Mr. Wade for her half of all their travel expenses out of untraceable cash reserves she just had lying around her house — reserves that included funds she now claims she kept that were campaign contributions illegally converted to her personal use.  We are being asked to believe that their affair didn’t begin until 2022 when a former associate has testified under oath that it actually began in 2019.

Just when you think it couldn’t get any more embarrassing for Fani Willis, the world discovered she was allegedly wearing her dress backwards.  Even the London Daily Mail noticed.

At one point, the judge called for a five-minute recess because Ms. Willis had gotten out of control, shouting that Ms. Merchant is a liar.  

Before the hearing began, the question being asked most often was whether Ms. Willis and Mr. Ward would be allowed to remain involved with the prosecution of President Trump.  Now the question is whether Ms. Willis will be allowed to keep her license to practice law.

John Leonard is a freelance writer.  He blogs at southernprose.com, and his books can be found at LeonardBooks.net.  His latest novel is titled Atheist’s Prayer.

Image: Fani Willis.  Credit: Atlanta News First via YouTube, CC BY 3.0.