Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Pre-Election Posturing

From the ABC news (Durham, N. Carolina) website comes this public service announcement:

The three candidates running for Durham district attorney will take public questions at a forum Wednesday evening.
The forum will feature District Attorney Mike Nifong, former prosecutor Freda Black and Keith Bishop. It runs from 5 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. at the Durham County Courthouse.

The public is welcome. You can watch the forum live on abc11tv.com. Eyewitness News anchor John Clark will be the moderator.


Any names familiar to you? Yes, indeed, Mr. Mike Nifong has been much on the news lately. Politicians just love the free publicity, getting their faces on the camera and be sure to spell the name correctly, there, lad. Nothing like a hot, boiler case to stir up the electorate, and he's got himself one.

The problem is, there's rumors going around that the DNA evidence taken from the victim does not match up with any of the lacrosse players who stand accused. That doesn't go down well with most folks, who are used to all that DNA evidence business on television. Don't the CSI crew solve all sorts of crimes with DNA matching? Hard to get past expectations, even if they aren't realistic.

Al Sharpton is on the way, ready to wallow in the swill of attention. He might want to think back, to his first big bash, when the unfortunate victim turned out to be a hoaxer. Mr. Nifong is fervently praying that such is not the case, because he'd be on the receiving end of a great deal of negative publicity, and too close to the election for comfort. For now, he's courting the black vote and figuring that the rich white folks don't make up enough of Durham County's population to worry about. It's all about getting elected. Kiss the collective arses of the most special interest groups, and then celebrate on election night after the polls close and the votes are counted, that's the politician's approach.

Does Mr. Nifong really care about justice and the exotic dancer who was assaulted? Ah, go on now, and did you just fall off the turnip truck?

No comments: