Monday, October 27, 2008

One down, hundreds to go

So, Alaska senator Ted Stevens was convicted of falsifying documents today (not corruption, because that's harder to prove, I gather). Nicely done, prosecution, I hope the conviction survives the appeals process... but that's not what has me writing, directly at least.

The Washington Post has some initial reactions from various parties at or near the whole mess here, and it's about what you would expect... Stevens proclaiming his innocense, Democrats, watchdogs, allied groups, and the odd Republican condemning him, many more Republicans supporting or neutral... but special attention should be paid to the bit at the bottom of the first page, the reaction of Alaska representative Don Young. In particular, this bit:

"I don't think he had a jury of his peers."

Well now, last I heard, we're a democratic republic, with no person "above" any other... I know I, for one, would just love to hear who Mr. Young thinks is, or is not, a peer to this senator.

2 comments:

Beth said...

Aw, you know. His peers. Dudes rich enough and old enough to not notice when hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goodies just kind of... show up at the house.

So: Monty Burns, Uncle Moneybags, Scrooge McDuck, Thurston J. Howell III, Mr. Plotz, Henry F. Potter, Carter Pewterschmidt, Charles Foster Kane, Hiram Lodge, Angina Salt, Auric Goldfinger, and The Monarch.

THEN poor Senator Stevens would have seen some justice.

delRhode said...

Right, or underlings that will check in with their bosses on how they should vote in the jury room, gotcha... I do like the idea of ol' Thaddeus Plotz on a jury, though... :)

It's just a shame that nobody at the Washington Post (or anywhere else, that I can see) thought (or had the, erm, intestinal fortitude) to ask the followup of the nice representative themselves... little wonder the newspapers are in decline.