So many jackasses, so little time

Now that Mike Pence has re-joined the D.C. swamp (and Brandt Hershman has quit the legislature to go work as a lobbyist) it's time to re-think who the most contemptible person in Indiana politics is. Jim Lucas (he of "constitutional carry" fame) is always a tempting target . . . Lord knows we in Indianapolis need a guy from Seymour telling us how to control urban violence, but I digress.

As the one regular reader of this blog can probably tell you, the undisputed, heavyweight champion of Hoosier Jackassery has been none other than Attorney General Curtis Hill, that aging drug and culture warrior who makes affluent racist white people feel good because, by gum, there's a black guy that agrees with their insatiable desire to lock up minorities.

Now, for those who haven't read the now-infamous memo about his ass-grabbing ways, it's right here. The Indiana Lawyer describes the allegations as follows:

Reports that Hill groped and/or behaved inappropriately toward four women — including Democratic State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon — came to light Tuesday when a confidential memo created at the request of state legislative leaders was leaked to the media. The memo, which was prepared by Indianapolis law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, records Reardon’s account of a drunken Hill sliding his hands down her back and under her clothes before grabbing her bare buttocks at an end-of-session legislative party in March. Though the memo says Hill repeated this conduct a second time, Reardon penned a column on Friday saying she was able to recoil before Hill could grope her a second time.

Personally, with the exception of the allegation about him reaching into a woman's pants to grab her butt, I think the rest of the allegations are fairly minor, by comparison (particularly when "by comparison" means "by comparison to the President of the United States"). I tend to view Mr. Hill's drunken actions as in line with a privileged man who rarely imbibes.

Note to self, if you're going to drink, drink often and learn how to handle your booze.

I do note, with a hint of irony, Curtis Hill's reaction to this firestorm:

“I now stand falsely accused of some of the same crimes I spent 28 years prosecuting,” the statement said. “Yet without a thorough investigation — without the right to face my accusers and review the evidence against me — I am convicted by public officials demanding my resignation. I believed that the standard in this country is that you are innocent until proven guilty – not guilty until proven innocent.”

The rumor mill has told me that Curtis Hill represented the absolute worst, most vile features of prosecutors everywhere: depriving the accused of due process by threatening to "charge up" in order to get them to plead guilty. Apparently leaning on people accused of misconduct is A-OK so long as you're Mr. Tough Guy Prosecutor but "you are innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent" when the accusation is against you, right Mr. Hill?

As I've made clear, this jackass can't go soon enough, and it really has very little to do with his rare-drunken pervy/handsy ways. Just take your stuffed suit back to where you came from Mr. Hill; go back to putting people in jail for possessing marijuana, if your former constituents will have you. Just please, please, quit besmirching my profession. We can do that just fine ourselves without your noxious self doing so.