Douglas; Politicizing Tragedy For Political Gain

There is something the Governor of our state of Vermont is really good at. It’s taking a very unfortunate occurance and turning it into political gain. In a small state like ours, big news like our first amber alert had everybody concerned. Everyone watched, everyone waited, what would be the missing girls fate?

Then a disappearance turns into one families horror, and a statewide travesty. A convicted sexual predator, was released into the public on probation by our department of corrections. Released after completing the sex offender treatment program, where he was a “model inmate” and hailed as a success. Apparently the program doesn’t work, after his release he reportedly begins molesting a nine year old, and within a couple years effectively stalked and hunted his own niece. The abrupt and tragic end to her life is a testament to the failure of our state corrections and sex offender treatment program.

Here we are in an election year and a hot button issue lands in Governor Douglas’s lap. So what does he do, he picks it up and runs with it. Now he’s talking about civil confinement, the death penalty, and even chemical castration. Do I disagree, hell no!! This is one of the few instances where I actually agree with the governor. I don’t think we can ever go far enough with regards to protecting our kids.

However, there is nothing I hate worse than people who use tragedies for political gain. This is exactly the card Douglas is playing now. He is not calling a special session of the legislature because ““If I thought for a minute that the legislative leaders would embrace a serious package of reforms that we have talked about this afternoon, I’d have them here tomorrow,” Douglas replied. “Their past action does not give me a lot of confidence that in the aggregate they are prepared to take these steps.”” (BFP 7/11/08)

This is playing politics pure and simple. If the legislature were to meet, and pass the reforms he talks about, than the issue would go away. But this is an election year, and he can’t let it go away. He needs to keep beating this drum right thru November so he can sound tough on crime and make the Democratic legislature sound weak on crime. If the legislature is weak on crime, than his opponent who led that legislature is also weak on crime. It’s the forked tongue that Douglas speaks with that spews a whole lot of BS.

Governor Douglas, get off your butt and call a special session or get off the high horse. Take steps now to solve this obviously important issue before another kid gets hurt. Otherwise the failure here won’t just be corrections released someone who was a danger to the public. It will be a failure of the governor to protect the people, and more importantly kids, of his state.