Tom Ridge wants leniency for creep who beat toddler

One creep goes to bat for another creep.

The Bushist brain trust seems to have never met a violent criminal they didn't like. As with the leniency displayed by Mike Huckabee and Haley Barbour towards particular monsters in their respective states, Tom Ridge now seems to have taken up the hug-a-thug mantle.

The former Pennsylvania governor and Bush's Homeland Security director wrote a letter demanding leniency for Matthew Lazenby. Lazenby is an Erie area man who has just been sentenced to 4 to 8 years in prison for beating his former girlfriend's 23-month-old daughter so brutally that her skull was broken. The toddler also suffered neurological damage that may be permanent.

Ridge called Lazenby a "loving and nurturing father" despite this revolting crime.

This episode probably means Tom Ridge will never win another elected office again. Then again, you never know, because stuff like this doesn't seem to stick to Republicans. The media tried holding Michael Dukakis responsible for a prison furlough program that he had nothing to do with, but the Huckabee and Barbour scandals are forgotten.

(Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09294/1007219-100.stm;
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091021/NEWS02/310209906/-1/NEWS03)