Patterico's Pontifications

8/31/2007

Disgraced Officials, Times Two

Filed under: Law,Politics — DRJ @ 3:05 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Sources in the AP and the GOP say Idaho Senator Larry Craig will resign Saturday.

Meanwhile, former DA Mike Nifong was held in criminal contempt for lying to the Court:

“Reading his decision from the bench minutes after the conclusion of two days of testimony, Smith said Nifong ‘willfully made false statements’ to the court in September when he insisted he had given defense attorneys all results from a critical DNA test.

In fact, Smith found, Nifong had provided the defense with a report on the DNA testing that he knew to be incomplete. The omitted data contained test results showing that DNA of multiple men, none of whom were lacrosse players, was on a woman who said she was attacked at a March 2006 party thrown by Duke’s lacrosse team.”

Judge Smith will immediately consider Nifong’s punishment which could be up to 30 days in jail and a $500.00 fine.

14 Responses to “Disgraced Officials, Times Two”

  1. I’ve heard he’s getting 24-hours in jail, which makes the point and is acceptable.

    More would have been good too.

    Christoph (92b8f7)

  2. Gosh than half of Democratic Senate should resign.
    I somehow do not trust the cop. Why are you waiting for senator not governer or someone else.
    Smells like cop is one of “loco-democratico”.

    rightobserver (90a2ad)

  3. Forgive me DRJ,

    I do not agree with the parallel. The only thing I can fault about Craig is the way he wussed out. Dan Collins at Protein Wisdom has several links showing what a slime the cop who arrested him is. Craig, with his power and other resources, had a chance to humiliate a bad cop. Instead, he humiliated himself. I concede that it could be a case of “the wicked flee when they could turn their pursuer into dogfood”. But I still do not see Nifong’s evil in poor Craig.

    nk (a6ecc6)

  4. NK,

    Nothing to forgive – debate and disagreement are good things.

    I think both men are disgraced but the parallel was not the deed (or its degree of evil – Nifong wins hands down on that), rather it was the timing of the consequences. As for Craig, he waived his chance to contest his arrest by pleading guilty. I assume he had a reason for his plea and I take him at his word. If he now wants to claim he’s stupid because he took the plea, I’ll take him at his word on that, too.

    DRJ (bfe07e)

  5. Thank you, DRJ. On the issue of the plea, I am not inclined to be kind to Craig. It was disgraceful. That was a fight he should have fought to the death if only for the sake of his family whom he talks about so much.

    nk (a6ecc6)

  6. BTW:

    I am at home surfing the blogs on a Friday evening, my wife and daughter being out to dinner with friends without me, because I replaced the switches on the sump pump and water ejection system and put in a new garage door, and even after a long shower I am not fit for human company. What’s your reason?

    nk (a6ecc6)

  7. To lighten up one more degree, I copied the following from Instapundit (I know, coals to Newcastle, but it’s funny):

    I realize that there are things missing in this analysis, and of course the biggest problem is that it does not involve actual sex, but the perception of sex. In that respect, Craig’s “sex” is like the nonexistent sex of Mark Foley, whose crime was not sex, but sending suggestive emails. (Or Vitter, whose name was found in an address book.) . . .

    What is it with these guys that they can’t even run a proper sex scandal?

    Who ever heard of sex scandals without sex?

    At least when the Democrats have a sex scandal, it involves real, honest to goodness sex. Yeah, I know, Bill Clinton said the sex wasn’t sex. But let’s face it, it was. Had Bill tapped Monica’s foot, the most he’d have been accused of was playing footsie, and there’d have been little to no outcry, much less an impeachment. And as Matthew Sheffield makes clear, the double standard is appalling; Democrats keep their jobs after drowning women in cars or keeping male brothels, while Republicans are hounded out of office for sex scandals without even the component of sex.

    If I were the American people, I’d be totally sick of sexless Republican sex scandals by now.

    The GOP needs to shape up.

    nk (a6ecc6)

  8. NK,

    I’m being so hard on Craig because his legal problems were avoidable. The charge could have easily been challenged but Craig’s response emboldened the police to overreach. That leaves me with two options: Assume Craig was guilty and he knew it, or assume Craig was spineless and hoped he could make it go away. Neither option gives me confidence in him as a person or a Senator.

    As for my plans tonight, we did what we always do on a Fall Friday night in West Texas – high school football. It was a blowout so we came home early. The good and the bad about small towns is there isn’t that much to do.

    DRJ (bfe07e)

  9. agree 100% with DRJ#8. Craig collapsed and why? One has to wonder. This renders him an impotent leader (pardon the expession) and ’tis better to replace him now.

    No comparison to att’y Nifong who totally abused his position as a prosecutor and devastated three lives maybe four because of his reprehensible complacency in the lies of the girl who cried rape. He is by far the worst of the two.

    Craig just has an achilles heel–which he apparently let move to far over into the next bathroom stall.

    atmama (fa996c)

  10. Yeah, I know, Bill Clinton said the sex wasn’t sex. But let’s face it, it was.

    Yeah, but it was fumbling, guilt-ridden, almost superstitious sex that shames the United States in the eyes of the world. A Methodist minister with a heart condition would have done a better job. A couple of 17th century Puritans fornicating in a haystack could have done a better job.

    Compare that British Army officer who nailed the Princess of Wales. The British – the freaking British – are better at this stuff than we are.

    Glen Wishard (b1987d)

  11. The British – the freaking British – are better at this stuff than we are.

    Well, they have had more practice, haven’t they?

    Another Drew (8018ee)

  12. DRJ wrote:

    I’m being so hard on Craig because his legal problems were avoidable. The charge could have easily been challenged but Craig’s response emboldened the police to overreach. That leaves me with two options: Assume Craig was guilty and he knew it, or assume Craig was spineless and hoped he could make it go away. Neither option gives me confidence in him as a person or a Senator.

    Well, in thirty days, he won’t be one anymore.

    But the whole incident reveals the problem: he might have been able to win the legal fight, but it would have been all over the papers — and he’d have been exposed, with the same consequences as happened to him today. By not fighting, he had at least a miniscule hope that this would slide under the radar, and be missed completely.

    Larry Craig knew that there were people who were trying to expose him as a closeted homosexual, and he felt such a compulsion that he went ahead with this anyway. How freaking stupid does he have to be?

    As for Mr Nifong, he got one stinking day in jail, for actions which cost three innocent men and their families thousands upon thousands of dollars, cost two of them their admissions to Duke, cost a highly ranked team its season, cost the coach his job, and which has ruined the future careers of the three accused players.

    One stinking day. Heck, Paris Hilton did 23 days, and she never abused a government office or hurt anybody.

    Dana (c36902)

  13. NK wrote:

    I am at home surfing the blogs on a Friday evening, my wife and daughter being out to dinner with friends without me, because I replaced the switches on the sump pump and water ejection system and put in a new garage door, and even after a long shower I am not fit for human company.

    Does the dog at least still like you? 🙂

    Dana (c36902)

  14. The important thing about the Nifong contempt is that it put another criminal act on his record. It’s significance is the part it will play in the civil cases against Nifong. The length of the penalty was not important.

    Ken (245846)


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