Monday, May 30, 2005
More On Politicizing
Super-blogger Joe from the Civic Forum makes a great point in a comment to the post below. I thought about this right after posting that piece.
John Wilder made an absolute buffoon of himself last week in defending the indicted legislators.
My first criticism is that he chose make some pretty garish statements in the midst of a prayer. Regular readers will know that I get pretty serious about the intersection of faith and politics, and especially about using faith as a crutch for bad politics. Well, this is a prime example. This is a time when our leaders should be praying especially for guidance as they consider how to move the state forward from its current ethical quagmire. Now is certainly not the time to use a prayer to make a jab at law enforcement tactics.
But lest I (of all people) ignore the politics of Wilder's foolish comments, what a screw-up they were. Of course these folks are all innocent until proven guilty. But, please. How bad does it look to have the Democratic Party's ostensible leader go off on a partisan rant about this stuff? We need to stay above the fray and be forward-looking. These next months give Democrats the chance to take the reins and being Tennessee into a new era, ethically. We have a governor in Bredesen whose bipartisan support gives him the capital to make it happen. It will be hard enough when these cases come to trial without prominent Democrats railing against how bad the FBI is for framing them instead of railing about how bad they are for taking the bribes in the first place.
Because, let us not forget, entrapment can only be argued if you cop to having actually accepted the bribes. This leads to another great question: What are Ward and Chris' defenses going to be?
Anyway, thanks to Joe for his thoughts. How about leaving some of your own?
John Wilder made an absolute buffoon of himself last week in defending the indicted legislators.
My first criticism is that he chose make some pretty garish statements in the midst of a prayer. Regular readers will know that I get pretty serious about the intersection of faith and politics, and especially about using faith as a crutch for bad politics. Well, this is a prime example. This is a time when our leaders should be praying especially for guidance as they consider how to move the state forward from its current ethical quagmire. Now is certainly not the time to use a prayer to make a jab at law enforcement tactics.
But lest I (of all people) ignore the politics of Wilder's foolish comments, what a screw-up they were. Of course these folks are all innocent until proven guilty. But, please. How bad does it look to have the Democratic Party's ostensible leader go off on a partisan rant about this stuff? We need to stay above the fray and be forward-looking. These next months give Democrats the chance to take the reins and being Tennessee into a new era, ethically. We have a governor in Bredesen whose bipartisan support gives him the capital to make it happen. It will be hard enough when these cases come to trial without prominent Democrats railing against how bad the FBI is for framing them instead of railing about how bad they are for taking the bribes in the first place.
Because, let us not forget, entrapment can only be argued if you cop to having actually accepted the bribes. This leads to another great question: What are Ward and Chris' defenses going to be?
Anyway, thanks to Joe for his thoughts. How about leaving some of your own?
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