Guilty Plea

I have never been fond of Senator Larry Craig. He is probably one of the most arrogant, self serving assholes walking this earth today. A part of me thought it was just deserts when the Idaho Statesman outed his recent indiscretion. As the story unfolded, however, I began to wonder "what in the world?" I don't know if the guy is a hetero/homo/bisexual person or what. What I do think is that the situation was extremely questionable. And if he hadn't plead guilty to charges that were so completely strange (even if he did EXACTLY what the officer said, was it even illegal?), he would have continued on his big business, republican red, environmentally destructive way.

But he did plead guilty. If he had been a regular guy who didn't know much about the law, I would buy the "I was coerced" excuse. But Senator Larry Craig is not the regular average guy. He is a US Senator for crying out loud! Hopefully, our senators know the laws - they make them after all. There is no way this guy wasn't fully cognizant of what was going on. He deserves what he is getting. And so does Idaho for electing the numb skull. (I have never voted for him, but the people I vote for usually don't win).

Richard Cohen of the Washington Post has written a very interesting commentary about Senator Larry Craig. In his article A Senator Who Hasn't Learned, he discusses the fact that a US Senator plead guilty to a charge he says he wasn't guilty of, and brings to our attention all of the people who are sent to jail for crimes they were not guilty of because they were coerced into confessing.

It happens all the time, for crimes that are not misdemeanors and can carry stiff sentences, including death. Yet our law makers continue to demand harsh penalties on people who may never have been in trouble before. Larry Craig should stand as the biggest example of how innocent people get railroaded.

And then he should get railroaded.