Dinnertime Musings

Military tours in Iraq have been upped from 12 to 15 months. That's not going to make happy campers of military families, but it will allow for things to go smoothly without cutting down on the promised year between deployments.

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The Duke rape case has gone bye-bye, with all charged dropped against the three lacrosse players. I'm hoping that we don't have a legal case of Pac-Man, where the players and their lawyers go after former DA Nifong and the gal who made the accusations; that won't help matters, either.

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An interesting piece of Canadian political history has come to an end, at least for now. Belinda Stronach is stepping aside as a Liberal MP and stepping back into leadership at Magna, the auto parts company and leading suitor to buy Chrysler if and when it gets spun off from Daimler-Chrysler; her dad Frank is the current CEO.

Running an expanded Magna would seem to be more interesting than being a garden-variety opposition MP, since it seems like it will be quite a while before the Grits get back into power.

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The hot news of the hour has MSNBC dropping Imus for good. He was already slated for a two week suspension. Others are asking for his his CBS Radio scalp as well.

I'm not going to defend Imus' horrific faux pas, but rappers say worse on a regular basis; I guess black guys are allowed to dis their women without implication, while whites lose their jobs for less

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B.O. finally joined the chorus of folks piling on Imus. He was getting razzed from black activists for not being on the case sooner, but I didn't see Hillary or John Edwards going all-out on it, either; it's Jesse and Al's job to be profession offense-takers, not Obama's. He's a senator and presidential candidate and shouldn't be spending huge amounts of time and effort trashing a talk-show host.

Hillary merely declared that she wouldn't be on his show in the future and Edwards is talking forgiveness. He's not likely to get my vote, but I'll have to credit Edwards with some class there.

Imus seems to be repentant over his misstep, but I'm not sure whether he's sorry or sorry he got put through the ringer. We shall see.

Comments

[Nathan Mates]

I'm going to disagree on the "no Pac-Man, going back against Nifong." I think that going against the accuser would seem to be a little vindictive, and not likely to result in any good. Yes, she's changed her story repeatedly. Yes, she's not likely very stable. But, I think she's damaged her reputation enough in the process.

But, as to Nifong, he should have turned in his resignation immediately when this was announced. He's no "former DA", he's still the DA. Nifong committed a LOT of errors on this case, such as deliberately withholding DNA evidence (that exonerated the players) from the defense when he had that. A DA needs to behave better than that. He's been up for censure by the state bar for months, and that process is still in the pipeline. He's already had professional colleagues start to "go Pac-Man" on him, and it's only going to get worse after today. (There's a bunch of useful summaries of the subject at http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/04/case-narative-iii.html, which I really think should be required reading).

This is serious professional and prosecutorial misconduct, and I feel that even if he does the least bit honorable thing and resigns now, all the existing charges should be allowed to work their way to their conclusion. Personal suits against him might well be justified, because he used this case to push his (successful) re-election campaign. He's gained a lot by his misbehavior. I think that there should be some redress.

(My wife attended Duke, so I've followed this with a bit more attention)

[Nathan Mates]

Just to ammed things slightly. This CNN article notes that Nifong recused himself from the case some months ago, but he's still the DA. And, a link in that article has a better list of the ethics charges against him. Getting the word from the horse's mouth is a better link to read.

[Mark Byron]

Nifong does need to be looked at for prosecutorial misconduct; at minimum, it seems like he used the case to get reelected and kept things going longer than a fair take on the facts would justify.

I just don't want to see the pack mentality that went after the lacrosse guys when this story broke turned on its head and sicced on the accuser and Nifong. Both may deserve some punishment, but I don't like the piling-on mentality.