Pirro Breaks Out the Child Molesting Talking Points

According to Newsday, on Tuesday Jeanine Pirro said in a speech, "That's a difference between Democrats and Republicans _ we don't want them next door molesting children and murdering women," referring to sex offenders.

Apparently this was in a Chemung County Republicans. She was referring to legislation that would civilly confine violent sex offenders after their prison sentences end, which is pending in the Democratic-controlled state Assembly.

It may seem a little early to break out the child molesting talking points, but the election is the first week of November.

Of 2006.

Yes, it is a little early for such talk and Clinton's people had a response:

"Ms. Pirro's comment is an affront to common decency and an outrageous insult to the five and a half million law-abiding Democrats in our state. With statements like these, Ms. Pirro's campaign is rapidly going from an embarrassment to a disgrace."

-- Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson.

The next day Pirro's campaign manager, Brian Donahue, she does not believe Democrats want sexual predators living next door to anyone. Well, that's just great! "This quote is out of context."

Aren't they always?

"She's conveying a sense of frustration associated with it because she believes that unless this legislation is passed, we are allowing sex offenders to prey on the innocent. The bill "is being held up for partisan reasons by the Democratic leadership." said Pirro's spokesman.

According to Newsday, "State Assemblyman David Koon, a Rochester-area Democrat whose 18-year-old daughter was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1993, called Pirro's comments "total malarkey."

"Civil confinement should be out there, but it doesn't define Republicans and Democrats," Koon said, adding that "there are a lot of Democrats out there who believe in it."

Whatever the outcome of this legislation, the whole debate does suggest something about Jeanine, aside from her lack of ethics and her foundering campaign.

She should've run for a statewide office. She's a well-known prosecutor who's probably knowledgeable on criminal justice issues, which often impact other local political decision-making, like police department budgets, family court, welfare, poverty, drug policy, education, urban planning... But these are all local and state issues, as is criminal prosecution in general.

What's her stance on the war in Iraq? Scandal in White House? Harriet Miers? Federal and international environmental issues? Social Security? Federal spending? Taxes? CAFTA? The WTO? North Korea? Taiwan? Chechnya?

Jeanine: Drop out now. Run for Assembly. Then you can propose all the civil confinement bills you want.

Or maybe she doesn't really care about anything. Maybe she's just a cheap smear artist, an incompetent hack with a love of the spotlight.