Hasn't Sen. Lesniak ever heard of a jury?

Senator Ray "Lord of Ass" Lesniak is preening and posturing again.  His lordship is preparing to run against a couple of heavyweights and a self-funder for the Democrat Party nomination for Governor next year.  He's worried, because the pay-to-play that once feathered his nest, the unethical practices that he once defended as business as usual, don't produce what they once did.  For him anyway.  Ray's snout has been squeezed out by a lot of newer, more aggressive snouts.  It happens, Ray.

So now Ray has gone the reformer route, playing the "good government" routine.  And there is nothing wrong in this.  In fact, his lordship has come up with an interesting cost-saving measure.  Ray wants to replace the $120,000-per-year members of the State Parole Board, with $300-a-day part-timers.  So far, so good.

The problem we have is who he wants to give those part-time jobs to.  Yep, you guessed it.  Ray wants those part-time jobs to go to scumbag lawyers. Worse still, he wants those jobs to go to the politically connected scumbag lawyers who score judgeships.  Like the one they approved a year or so ago while the organization he ran was under federal investigation and the FBI were crawling up its arse.

Ray argues that men like Labor Commissioner Hal Wirths are "not qualified" to sit on the Parole Board to determine whether or not a convicted criminal has owned up to what he or she has done and is ready to re-enter society.  In Ray's world, you need a law degree to make judgments like that.

Well hell, if that's the case, then juries should be lawyers only.  What "qualifications" do the average members of a jury have to determine the guilt or innocence of someone in the first place?

Either Ray didn't think this one through, or someone's taken a dump in his brain and forgot to flush it.

Have you ever read the crimes of those people the highest judges in the state have allowed back to the bar to practice law in New Jersey?  Have you read the b.s. excuses that the state's top court gave when they voted against disbarring a convicted sex criminal?  Yeah, we know, he was a well-connected former legislator -- but that still didn't make it cool. 

Nah, let's not let have judges making those moral judgments.  We're even squeamish about allowing anyone with a law degree near it.  Let's just go with regular people.

Besides, our government is already too lawyered-up.  Attorneys hold a majority in both houses of Congress.  They have the White House and, of course, the entire Supreme Court.  This trade association owns our federal government and most of the nation's state legislatures too. That's too much power for any group.  Imagine the outrage if the insurance industry or medical association held all those elected positions? 

So on top of all this, Ray Lesniak wants to provide $300-a-day part-time gigs to legal retirees so they can top-off their earnings while maintaining their lifestyles.  Screw that.  A homeless veteran with PTSD would provide better insight than most in the legal game.  At least he or she would be a human being.

As for Hal Wirths.  Well, he's a pretty regular guy.  And nobody has ever questioned his humanity, his honesty, or his decency.  On that score, Ray Lesniak can't hold a candle to him.