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October 24, 2005

I report, you decide.

Before we started Preemptive Karma, Kevin and I used to participate in a Senate Simulation game on AOL. It was held on the AOL News message board system (later moved to Games..where it fell apart, hence our need to find a new forum to discuss/debate politics).

When I joined the SIM Senate, I jumped right in to the debate fray. I've loved debating and talking politics since I can remember. I especially enjoy debating those with whom I disagree. The SIM Senate was a perfect place to engage such individuals.

Which leads me to why I bothered to comment on this post that I came across today via Instapundit. The author of the post, Bill Crawford, opines on a piece written by Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald:

So moral authority gives you the right to speak out, right? Wrong. Here is Pitts October 21, 2005 writing about the father of a murder victim who supports the death penalty:

"The spots -- devastating in their power and staggering in their cynical use of the moral authority that comes with loss -- have put Kaine on the defensive by making him out to be soft on the death penalty."

Apparently Mr. Pitts only supports the use of moral authority when it fits into his liberal world-view.

Except that isn't what Pitts was saying at all. He never once states that those who support the death penalty because their children have been murdered don't have the right to speak out. He is stating (quite obviously) that Kilgore's use of them in his campaign commercials is cynical because of Kilgore's foresworn moral objection to the death penalty because of his Catholicism:

Them's fightin' words in Virginia. Because Virginia, which executes people with a gusto rarely seen in any state this side of Texas, loves its death penalty. Hence, Kaine's conundrum: He's a Catholic who says he has moral objections to state-sanctioned execution. But he has promised voters he would absolutely uphold the law if elected.

Which led me, of course, to respond in the comments section of this blog.

I don't know if this makes me a masochist or just really hard core argumentative.

I report, you decide.

Posted by Carla at October 24, 2005 12:09 PM