Moonbeam For AG?
In California, Jerry Brown will always be remembered for his relationship with two women: Linda Ronstadt and Rose Bird. To put it bluntly, he screwed the former and screwed us with the latter.Now he's running for Attorney General, and memories of the 61 death sentence walks Bird granted before being drubbed out of office are once again on the mind of at least some of the Golden State's electorate.
The OCRegister's top opinion writer, Steven Greenhut, met with Moonbeam recently and drew this conclusion:
I'm left wanting to pull out that old human-resources blow-off. "Yeah, Mr. Brown, you've got some really good experience, and many interesting things to say. But do you really think this is the right job for you? This is the top law enforcement position in the state, where you would have subpoena power and would be in charge of criminal-justice matters, including a death-penalty you view as Nazi-like. I'm afraid this isn't the right fit for you."In Greenhut's column is a truth that is repeated on issue after issue with depressing conviction and regularity:
Brown slammed the execution of William Bonin, who murdered 21 teenage boys: "On Feb. 23, 1996 [that's 1996, not 1976], here in the San Francisco Bay Area, William Bonin was sent to his death, murdered by the state, by our representatives, in our name, to protect us. ... There isn't the same mood of generosity or humanity to look at what we are really doing. ..."
That's charmingly quaint 1970s-era "soft on crime" gibberish, which I gleaned from links to radio transcripts provided me by Ken Khachigian, who is overseeing the [Chuck] Poochigian [GOP] campaign [for AG]. ...
"We've seen a dramatic change starting in the 1980s," Poochigian said, with prison building, three strikes and other laws based on tougher assumptions about the motivations of criminals. The crime rate has dropped substantially, but now that it has dropped the public seems less concerned about crime and might be willing to elect Brown and move back in the other direction. "Brown doesn't want to focus on traditional law enforcement issues," the senator told me.
When Conservative solutions solve the problems caused by Liberal policies, the Lib's reaction is to attack the solution and pretend the problem never existed. Crime rate down? There's too many prisons! No terror attacks in the US? Get out of Iraq!
A Dem prosecutor from LA named Rocky Delgadillo is running against Brown. Seems like a decent enough guy. I hope he loses. A Moonbeam vs. Pooch race would be a good one, galvanizing the public on an election that usually plays pretty low on the public's radar.
It would be a good fight -- a proud, surviving Lib against a no-nonsence Conservative. Touchy feely vs. lock 'em up.
posted by Laer at 10:51 AM
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