But I do not think we do the voting public any favors in a democracy when we fail to use the competitive election process to inform it of things that it should know. If being “nice” is a requirement in this discourse, I guess the British are correct about the vacuousness of the American educational system.
I am not happy to see people bamboozled like this. And I am not going to hide it to please the ‘nice police’.
These offices are public trusts, and if one believes it matters who receives that sacred trust, one should advocate based on facts, and with seriousness and passion where appopriate.
These are serious matters, so only the unvarnished facts will do.
**********************DIGRESSION
[Was Senator Kennedy wrong to be passionate in the Alito hearing about using the trust we in Massachusetts gave him to play a role beyond that of a talking potted plant (like Biden) and instead pursue his constitutional perogative? I don’t think so. But then again, my view is sadly rare on that these days. Just look at the inane and constitutionally nescient press coverage. Just ask Senator “Slave to Conventional Wisdom.” Feinstein. But I digress…]
*******************END OF DIGRESSION
Here is a question: Why exactly is it that there may be so many people so willing to elect someone for District Attorney with absolutely no interest in the criminal law prior to his decision in 2003 to use the D.A.’s office as a stepping stone?
Another one: Why did Mr. Barrios have no interest in criminal law whatsoever prior to that time?
For those of you who think that I am kidding, particularly that blogger who derisively echoed the no-neck, Howie Carr, by dismissing this good man, Mike Festa, as a “divorce attorney” (not that there is anything wrong with being a divorce attorney by the way), my next paragraph holds something that I think you might find amusing.
If you want to see what Senator Barrios himself sees as his skill that is worthy of remuneration in the marketplace, just check out his own words on his law firm site at http://www.dlapiper.com/jarrett_barrios/.
You already posted the last part of your diary about you digression and Barrios being a Real Estate Lawyer…
<
p>
As someone with do dog in this race, it seems that the “Festa has more criminal justice experience than Barrios” is self-defeating. For any voter who votes for DA based on experience as a prosecutor or time in the court room, Festa may win points standing next to Barrios, but what happens when that voter compares Festa against Leone?
<
p>
Now you start squiming and point out that Leone is a Patriot Act loving US Attorney in the Bush Era…but you lose you initial arguement about who has the most experience in the court room putting bad guys away.
<
p>
With Barrios having close to $600,000 cash on hand and Leone shocking everyone (well at least me and a few politicos I hang out with) with raising nearly $450,000 and having $375,000 in his war chest, Festa and his organization need more meat on their muscles before they try to cut someone at the knees (the OCPF site is down, so I can’t confirm the $30,000 figure Festa has reportedly raised.) Because one thing is true in politics, if an issue is raised by a candidate that has no money to promote it, then it was never raised.