This line in Megan’s post on Ashley Todd got me thinking:

That she did so in a season when her candidate’s own campaign has been accused of making Barack Obama the unacceptable Other to try to win the presidency probably allowed her to convince herself that her actions were valid and helpful.

Not to overdo this or anything, but in this respect Ashley Todd has a lot in common with Jimmy McNulty. McNulty just can’t bring this monster Marlo down. The institution in which he works is more encumbrance than facilitator. Innovation is discouraged and initiative is punished. Only by an audacious act of blatant immorality does justice have a hope of prevailing. How promising it all must have seemed to Ashley Todd.

It’s clear by the look on Bunk’s face when McNulty starts tampering with dead bodies that McNulty’s transgressions are not to be excused. Perhaps the only thing that can be said in McNulty’s fictional case was that he was trying to bring down a mass murderer. Ashley Todd was just ticked that her candidate wasn’t winning.