Friday, January 15, 2010

I try not to blog too much on politics on a sports blog

For one, politics are extremely divisive these days.

That said, I think we can all agree that the following pols/political commentators said some really stupid things this week:

Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, and Danny Glover.

But the dumbest comment of the weak? That belongs to Martha Coakley, a Democrat who is running in the special senatorial election in Masschusetts against Republican Scott Brown. The winner will finish out the term of the late Ted Kennedy.



That's right, she accused Curt Schilling, noted Red Sock great but also political fly in the ointment conservative (especially since he lives in the uber-liberal land known as Boston), a Yankees fan.

That's not her most egregious error, however.

Boston, MA - Thomas "Hockey Dad" Junta was sentenced today to 6 to 10 years in prison for killing Michael Costin during the course of a fight at a hockey rink. Another senseless death may have resulted from the manslaughter case, say some doctors, because the district attorney overruled a request from Costin's family to donate his heart in a transplant to save another person's life, according to an article in the January 25, 2002 issue of the Boston Globe.

"Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley blocked the donation of Costin's heart after he was diagnosed clinically brain-dead," writes Sean P Murphy of the Globe, "to preclude any possibility that his assailant's lawyer might contend at the trial that Costin died of a pre-existing heart condition rather than the beating."

Although the move may have made sense as a matter of legal strategy, Murphy notes, some doctors say that a patient was probably denied a heart transplant because of it, and that preserving the heart would not have strengthened the prosecution's case any further "because it was demonstrably healthy, and transplant surgeons would have rejected it if any defects were discovered." The medical evidence, they argue, showed overwhelmingly that Costin died from head trauma and that his heart was fine, and that would have been enough to counter any doubts raised by the defense by questioning the cause of death.
If this woman somehow wins this election, it'll be due to the fact Massachusetts is one of the bluest states in the land. Because, honestly, this is one of the worst political campaigns I think I've ever seen.

No comments:

Post a Comment