Saturday, August 05, 2006
 
Driving While Black Republican
Akin rival arrested on traffic warrants:
    On Monday night, Parker had just finished staking campaign signs on private property near Highway 40 in St. Charles County when he was pulled over by a state trooper who questioned what Parker was doing near the road.

    When the officer later did a check on the candidate's drivers license, he discovered that Parker had two arrest warrants for unresolved traffic violations in St. Louis County. Parker was briefly taken into police custody and released after paying a pair of $100 bonds, according to court documents.
So this has all the trappings of a racial profiling sort of stop, and the Post-Dispatch's activism is muted. Because the target is a Republican, or because the target himself is avoiding the obvious?
    Parker, already considered a long shot to unseat Akin, issued an apologetic statement after being asked about the arrest on Friday.

    "I very much regret that this incident may detract, in these last few days, from the issues I have been stressing in this campaign," Parker said in a statement.
And:
    "I understand, that as an elected official, no one person is above the law," Parker said.
Sounds like the reasoned response of someone we'd want to elect. I haven't seen the full statement (it's not on his Web site), but I hope it's as apologetic and appropriate as the paper makes it sound. Not accusatory, not avoiding responsibility, just explanatory and humble.

UPDATE: Representative Parker has sent me his complete statement, posted here.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:52 AM
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