Editorial:
Long
Memories
8/19/05
David Borden, Executive Director, [email protected]
I don't expect to ever be as powerful as Rep. Sensenbrenner, and I hope I would not become a "meany" as people say about him even if I did. But with this being a Drug War Chronicle milestone -- issue #400 -- it seems like a good time to point out that having published this newsletter for eight years and done alerts and bulletins for years before that we have long memories at DRCNet too. Some of my memories were jogged by the news this week that Ohio Gov. Bob Taft has been indicted on misdemeanor charges of failing to report certain gifts. The charges are especially embarrassing for the governor due to his having recently taken a public stance on ethical standards for state employees. The memories that were jogged were of credible accusations during and after the 2002 election campaign that Gov. Taft and his wife crossed the line into the realm of unlawful conduct in the midst of campaigning against Issue One, a state ballot measure that would have made drug treatment instead of jail a guaranteed option for first- and second-time drug offenders. Not having done a sophisticated legal analysis of the governor's current or former alleged misdeeds, I can't venture an informed opinion on whether they merit a criminal prosecution or rise to the level at which a state's chief executive ought to resign as some have called for. But I must ask, why now but not then? If the impact on actual people is a gauge of an offense's seriousness, illegal activity to influence the outcome of a ballot initiative strikes me as far more serious than failure to report some gifts. What if the Tafts' campaign to defeat Issue One was the key element in the measure's defeat, and what if inappropriate activity within that campaign helped make the difference? It can't really be proven that it didn't. If so, the result is that some people went to jail who might not have if the measure had passed, a significant impact on policy and a very drastic impact on lives. Just because the changes Issue One would have brought about were changes the state officialdom mostly didn't like, doesn't mean that apparent violations of law in the campaign to defeat it should not have gotten a serious investigation. Agree or disagree with this week's indictments, my long memory says there is a double standard at work. There should be no drug war exception to lawful behavior by public officials.
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