J-U-S-T-I-C-E, not J-U-S-T U-S

Watching last night’s debate, I kept wondering what Kerry Healey would do if someone she loved – say her husband – were arrested for a violent crime? What if it were a particularly brutal crime: a rape or a murder? What if he was convicted but maintained his innocence, or she believed there had been a miscarriage of justice? Would Healey tell the police to lock her husband up and throw away the key?

We all know the answer to these questions. Healey would fight for her husband. Like Bernard LaGuer, she would use her intelligence and articulateness to rally support for her husband’s case. And she would take the funds she’s been using to defame Deval Patrick’s character for the last few weeks and get the best defense attorney money could buy.

EVERYONE is someone’s husband, or daughter, friend, etc... That’s one of the reasons why there’s the presumption of innocence in our criminal justice system, and why we’re all entitled to a defense. Another reason is that, without these protections, we have the kind of tyranny the folks in Lexington and Concord were fighting against years ago. Healey knows this, but to get elected she has consciously chosen to denigrate these fundamental rights and liberties. That’s immoral.

From Healey’s antipathy toward the justice system, to the Bush Administration’s attempts to suspend habeas corpus, wiretap without warrants, institute military tribunals, and legalize torture, Republicans seem to hold in contempt the freedom they so often extol in their speeches – except when it’s Scooter Libby, Jack Abramoff, or Mark Foley in the dock. Maybe they’ve forgotten; it’s J-U-S-T-I-C-E not J-U-S-T U-S.

A Public Service Announcement, Healey Style

While women's groups like the Jane Doe Fund have expressed outrage at Kerry Healey's recent ad campaign again linking her rival, DevalPatrick, with a convicted rapist, I would like to thank the Lieutenant Governor for doing us and other voters a great service.

Here I was, concerned that my wife and I can't afford to buy a home or raise a child in the "Commonwealth," that our property taxes and healthcare premiums have skyrocketed, and that much of coastal Mass, where we now live, will be under water in the next 100-200 years unless greenhouse gas emissions are greatly reduced. Thanks to the Healey campaign, though, I now know that my wife will be raped if I vote for Deval Patrick, the African American candidate for governor. Clearly, my other concerns are trivial next to the danger the Healey campaign says I now face.

I don't know where Healey stands on all those other "silly" issues I was worried about. I don't really know what she's done to make her qualified to be governor, other than be the silent partner of a guy -Mitt Romney - who doesn't really seem to like Massachusetts very much. But I know she doesn't like rapists. Thank God we live in a democracy where that - and $7.2M of your own money - is all it takes to raise your standing in the polls.