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PrintAugust 1, 2010
Pardon for Billy the Kid?
Bill Richardson, Democrat governor of New Mexico, is weighing a pardon for another Bill, Billy the Kid. What is it about Democrats that they so love criminals? Their ongoing efforts to grant felons voting rights are well known. And hasn't Mr. Richardson noticed that Billy is dead? But then, the dead are another staunch Democrat voting bloc, to judge by their turnout every two years, so I guess it's just constituent servicing.
Seriously, Governor Richardson has so little to do that he is actually going to meet with the grandchildren of Pat Garrett next week to hear their concerns about a pardon. Garrett is the sheriff who hunted Billy down after the latter killed two deputies while escaping from jail. Garrett's descendants are offended: their grandfather's memory will be sullied by the governor's pardon of a vicious murderer, and to what end? In a measure of Mr. Richardson's courageous leadership, he "asked a New Mexico columnist earlier this year to check with historians to measure their support for issuing a pardon." What an astute politician: never take a stand till you've run it through a poll.
Mr. Richardson would be our Secretary of Commerce today if not for a scandal. And no, that was not the charge, brought by his lieutenant governor, also a Democrat, that the governor was too hands on, too touchy feely, as in serial groping. Bill Clinton successfully inoculated the Democrat Party from any squeamishness over groping. No, it was a pay-to-play scandal, involving a contractor who did business with the state government that derailed his nomination. Of course, Mr. Richardson claimed to have "acted properly in all matters" but withdrew his name rather than face questions at his confirmation hearing. I used to work with a woman who knew Mr. Richardson. She said that if she lived in New Mexico she would vote for any Republican who ran against him. And she was as hard-core a Democrat as you could find. O Billy, if only more of the electorate could get to know you! What a legacy you leave: groping, payola, and now pardoning of a career criminal.
The progressives' pantheon of victims already includes Angela Davis. And William Ayres. And Hurricane Carter. And Mumia Abu-Jamal. And Che. And Fidel. And Mao. And ... The twentieth century didn't produce enough psychopaths for you to worship? Now it's on to the nineteenth century for "victims" of the Man? Who's up next? Lizzy Borden? Jack the Ripper?
Henry Percy is the nom de guerre for a technical writer living in Arizona. He may be reached at saler.50d@gmail.com.
