PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
Bill White
Politicians seek political cover while gutting child sex abuse law
I wanted to begin this column with a great rant about politicians from an old “Monty Python” episode.
It’s presented in the guise of an apology for some previous content and scrolls down the screen as a very-proper narrator reads it and “Pomp and Circumstance” plays.
I didn’t have space for the whole thing — you can find it on YouTube — but here’s an excerpt:
“We would like to apologize for the way in which politicians are represented in this programme. It was never our intention to imply that politicians are weak-kneed, political time-servers who are concerned more with their personal vendettas and private power struggles than the problems of government … nor to imply that they are squabbling little toadies without an ounce of concern for the vital social problems of today …”
I won’t endorse some of the specific language in the rant — I wouldn’t call anyone “crabby ulcerous little self-seeking vermin” — but the general sentiments fit my disgust with the state Senate Judiciary Committee, which has been hard at work fashioning an appropriate excuse for gutting a bill that would reform statutes of limitations for child sex abuse survivors. I’d have added something about subservience to powerful special interests.
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