Liberal Lunatic of the Day (3/25/2005)

Michael S. Dukakis, former ultra-liberal Governor of Massachusetts observed, "Who would have thought he'd turn out to be a poet?"

That “who” is Norman A. Porter, also known as J. J. Jameson, one of Chicago’s prominent anti-war figures and a member of the community of leftist anti-war poets. Jameson, the author of two books, a congregation leader at a church, and named Chicagopoetry.com's poet of the month in March 2004, was the very model of a modern “enlightened” cultural leader. He is also a man whose two life sentences were commuted by Mike Dukakis.

Porter is a double-murderer. He blew the back of a store-clerk’s head clean off with a sawed-off shotgun during a robbery and was complicit in the killing of the Chief Jailer at Middlesex County jail in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Porter escaped. His partner committed suicide, and Porter was caught a week later in Keene, N.H., while he was robbing a grocery store. Porter pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in both slayings and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

Dukakis commuted Porter's first life sentence in 1975 because Porter earned a degree, published poetry, and started a prison newspaper and radio station. He began serving his second sentence and Dukakis tried twice in 1978 to commute that sentence as well, but was unsuccessful.

On December 21, 1985, Porter walked out of a minimum-security facility, the Norfolk Prerelease Center, and didn't come back. He has been one of the 12 most wanted fugitives in Massachusetts ever since. "Who would have thought he'd turn out to be a poet?"

Michael Dukakis is the model of the liberal Democratic politician. Dukakis was first elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1974 by pledging not to increase the state's sales tax to balance the state budget, but did so soon after taking office. He vetoed legislation requiring teachers to lead public school pupils in the Pledge of Allegiance and he opposed the resumption of capital punishment in the United States.

During the presidential campaign of 1988, Dukakis claimed he was “a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union” and when the presidential debate’s moderator asked Dukakis, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis replied coolly, "No, I wouldn't."

“The Duke’s” liberalism clearly peaked with his arrogant veto of a bill to ban furloughs for first-degree murderers which led to convicted murderer Willie Horton being released on a weekend pass in 1987. Horton proceeded to brutally torture and rape a Maryland woman in front of her hogtied fiancé.

The problem with these liberals is they are forever dealing with the hard realities of life in the abstract. Abstractions are fine in the classroom, but once school’s out, these fools need to deal with the hard, cruel world where the decisions they make in the abstract come due. Porter, the poet, continued his life of crime while an escapee. He didn’t change and had been arrested four times between 1989 and 1993 in Illinois and Washington State. How many crimes did this Dukakis-commuted killer commit in which he wasn’t caught?

"Who would have thought he'd turn out to be a poet?"

During the presidential campaign of 1988, Dukakis claimed he was “a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union” and when the presidential debate’s moderator asked Dukakis, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis replied coolly, "No, I wouldn't."

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I don't think very many were surprised when it came to light that Kitty had a long-time drug problem. Or that Dukakis claimed to be unaware of it.

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