Dreaming Of Anna. And Jose.
(AP Photo/Brett Coomer-File)
I am dreaming. And in my dream all the poor souls who were covering the Anna Nicole Smith body-disposition hearing instead had been told by their far-sighted and enlightened bosses to travel a tiny way further south along Interstate 95 to cover instead the competency hearing for Jose Padilla, the alleged terror conspirator. In my dream, the millions of people who wasted their lives this week following the saga of the former stripper were instead transfixed by the in-court drama unfolding in Miami, where government agents were finally being forced to disclose some of the ways in which they treat terror suspects—even U.S. citizens.
In my dream, all the cable television channels showed continuous updates of the proceedings in Miami and those proceedings, despite being in federal court, were televised to the world. Instead of the jackass of a judge presiding over the Smith hearing in state court in Broward County, millions of people instead followed the decorous proceedings inside the austere courtroom of U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who has bravely refused to be intimidated by the Justice Department into steamrolling Padilla into a conviction. Instead of our legal system earning scorn it earned respect; instead of it being turned into a circus, it turned itself into a cathedral of fairness and justice...
