Kennedy Escapes DWI

Left and Right commentators are disgracing themselves on this issue, I believe. The rightists -- including Ann Coulter -- correctly describe this situation as one in which a wealthy and well-connected gets out of what would have been a hellish legal mess for ordinary Americans. But Ann and the other rightists refuse to recognize that Bush II pulled the same trick, at least twice (for a DWI and escaping both combat service and authentic National Guard service during Vietnam) and possibly a third time (for cocaine possession).

Meanwhile, the leftists commentatators take a dispicable two-pronged approach. One, they frame this incident as Kennedy has: as a prescription drug situation, for which he has bravely come forward. Two, they liken it to the Rush Limbaugh prescription drug case. Nieither claim is accurate. Kennedy was not only DWI, he was DWI while driving dangerously. Every year thousands of decent, safe-driving Americans get pulled over for either the same sort of minor traffic violations that sober drivers get pulled over for, or stopped in dragnets, and have officers scrutinize them for the jackpot of a DWI. In Kennedy's case, he was driving so dangerously that his conduct attracted the attention of police; this was no instance of a person coming of a highway going 50 in a 35 access road, after having 5 beers. What adult American hasn't done such a thing? Nearly 100%, I'd say, though mercifully only a fraction fall into a cop's lap. Kennedy was driving recklessly, and he got off -- and driven home! -- whereas every ordinary American on his way home from a relative's wedding passing through a speed trap would get 24 hours in the tank, a suspended license, 20 days of picking up trash, $2,500 in fines, $5,000 in legal fees, and an extra $1,000 per year in car insurance fees for their rest of their lives.

Rush Limbaugh, as far as we know, never got high on his drugs and careened down the street, and never got let off the hook; he got prosecuted. Bush II got the same unfair treatment as Kennedy at least twice in his life. All honest critics must recognize these facts! I propose also that we take this time to rethink our DWI laws, which so harshly punish so many drivers who are behaving normally and non-dangerously.