The Star's editorial board is weighing in Thursday on Maryland's decision to release Arthur Bremer, who shot Gov. George Wallace in 1972, and Attorney General Troy King's political manuevering:
Some will wonder if justice has been done (by Bremer's release). There are those who believe that had it not been Wallace that Bremer shot he would have been released long ago. And there are those who are concerned, as was Wallace son-in-law and former Supreme Court Justice Mark Kennedy, “that someone who has committed a crime like this is actually going to walk free.”
The important point to remember, however, is that Wallace forgave Bremer and also credited the shooting for changing his life spiritually for the better.
And, as Gov. Bob Riley noted, “If Gov. Wallace could forgive him (then) the rest of us can.”
But apparently Attorney General Troy King can’t.
On the op-ed page, syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman is taking on the Sunni tribes in Iraq:
Warning! This important shift by the Sunni tribes could come unglued if the Shiite-led Iraqi government doesn’t start providing government services — water, fuel and electricity — to the Sunni areas the tribes have retaken.
It could also come apart because, well, this is Iraq. As one U.S. general said to me of the Sunni tribes, “They still hate us. They just hate al-Qaida even more right now and they hate the Persians even more than them. But they could turn their guns back on us anytime.”
We also have our normal fare of letters to the editor and a collection of international-based political cartoons on the op-ed page.
