Hat tip to Ben Tribbett on this one about State Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-37). In addition to his own analysis of Cuccinelli's latest craziness, Ben refers us to today's Raw Fisher column, "Virginia Vs. "Scuzzball Reporters" (That's Me!)." According to Fisher:
Cuccinelli is bothered by "scuzzball reporters out there who don't have a shred of human decency to give a flying rat's tail about the condition or feelings or circumstances of families" who've suffered some tragedy. Cuccinelli is offended by the sight of press hacks descending on citizens who've lost a loved one in some crime, fire or accident, so he's decided it should be illegal for reporters--or anyone else, for that matter-- to visit such families.His Senate Bill 1120 would deem criminal anyone who enters onto someone's private property within a week after the owner's family "suffered a substantial personal, physical, mental, or emotional loss, injury, or trauma."
The senator says this is necessary to stop scuzzball reporters from "bugging people" for a "juicy quote."
Fisher then tells the story of an assignment he got when he was 22 years old to visit a widow of an FBI agent "murdered by a drug thug." As it turns out, the woman invited Fisher in, then talked for hours about her husband. Fisher offered to leave several times, but "...the woman begged me to stay." The bottom line is that she wanted someone to talk to about her husband at that time, someone to tell her story to. What's wrong with that?
What's wrong is that Cuccinelli's bill - which, fortunately, has now been rejected by everyone on the State Senate's Courts of Justice committee aside from Cuckoo Cooch himself - is not only "unconstitutional" but also "gratuitous," "wildly wrong," and heartless. Fisher concludes, "What the senator seems not to understand is that if you have to resort to writing a law in an effort to command human decency, you've already lost the battle."
All I have to say to this is that we must defeat Ken Cuccinelli this November. GO JANET OLESZEK!