Rapid City Journal - Shaw the Plea Bargainer just leaves us flat.

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In their editorial this morning, The Rapid City Journal seemed to say they would have preferred Robert E Howard's brave and adventurous "Conan the Barbarian" to Rapid City's "Shaw the Plea Bargainer":
Shaw's pre-turkey day press release announced that he was pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and paying the $100 fine by mail after Polk County (Iowa) prosecutors offered to drop the more serious charge of resisting arrest.

Somehow, "Plea Bargain" Jim Shaw doesn't have the same ring to it as "Fightin' Jim."

"While I firmly believe that I would have been totally exonerated and found not guilty in a trial, because of the time it would have required of me to be away from Rapid City and my duties of mayor, I am doing what I believe is best for our community and putting my personal interests second," Shaw said in his release.

We have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, but gratitude to Mayor Shaw for pleading guilty to disorderly conduct for our community's sake doesn't immediately spring to mind.

If the mayor really believes he was innocent of the charges, he should have fought the case in court; we think the city could have survived a day or two without the mayor in his office. We're disappointed that the mayor tried to "sneak" this release out right before the holiday, a release that was filled with Iowa hog slop that he expected his constituents to swallow.
Read it all here.

"Growwlll! Rather than battle you to the ends of the earth for the sake of honor and dignity, I will accept a much lighter punishment of your choosing!" Yeah, it does leave one kind of flat.

Imagine if other people did that. Like Howard Dean:
"We're going to California and Texas and New York, and we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And they might consider being nice to us and allow us to come in fourth. Or maybe even third. Grrrr."
Or Knute Rockne:
"Rock," he said - "sometime, when the team is up against it -- and the breaks are beating the boys -- tell them to go out there and put a reasonable effort into it..."
Yeah. It just kind of lays there, doesn't it?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Ballzee editorial, I loved it. Hold these folks feet to the FIRE!!
5:46 PM
Anonymous said…
The new folks that took over are finally going to hold elected officals accountable.

Good for the Journal
5:51 PM
Anonymous said…
hats off to the journal for holding politician's fee to the fire.
6:21 PM
Anonymous said…
The Rapid City Weekly News has been great competition to the Journal, and now the Journal is started to get it's old spark back. I haven't read an editorial that good in years.
9:47 PM
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