He's Goin' To The Big His Own House

Yep, Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White, found guilty of felony Home Address Misreporting, will be serving....home detention. ("I can't wait for the appeal," say he, in his political-mood tone-deaf way.)

Well, he's hardly a violent offender; on the other hand, there are nice, quiet stoners and otherwise-saintly habitual parking ticket offenders in the gray-bar hotel right now, wishing they'd run for public office, too.

While we're on "public office," in Indiana, a felony rap does not qualify one to become Governor; on the contrary, it means you lose your space at the public trough. But that makes for a whole new problem, as it appears there's not a totally clear next step -- does the next runner-up get the crown and the ceremonial duties, is there a whole new pageant, or does Bert Parks the Governor get to name a new SoS? That's goin' before the Indian Supreme Court shortly; given that court's slant and lower court decisions so far, we'll see Vop Osili, Democrat challenger from the election, getting the job. (He seems honest and dedicated; no doubt we'd differ substantially on many issues but he was the only other Hoosier who acted interested in the job. He ran for City-Council and won, so one way or another, we'll be seeing more of Mr. Osili.)

An amusing (oh, really?) sidelight is that Mr. White got in trouble for having too many possible residences, and choosing to use one (his ex-wife's) that let him keep a paid political job instead of the one the courts figured he should have used (his fiance's). Meanwhile, Senator The Honorable the Richard Lugar doesn't even have a residence here, lists a place where he hasn't slept in several decades on his documents and so far, the "experts" keep sayin' it's all good. I'm sure there's a moral there, but I don't know what it is. Or would it be an "amoral?" Possibly, "Sleep in your car, it's safer."

Don't look back, gentlemen, something might be gaining on you.