Mr. Tainted Peanut Pleads The Fifth - Dana Millbank Op-Ed - WP

[hatrack]

In another time, Stew Parnell, the man whose peanut butter killed eight people and sickened 550 more, would have been put in the stocks or the pillory. Congress didn't have such tools at its disposal yesterday, so lawmakers did the modern equivalent: They put him through the walk of shame.

The House commerce committee hauled Parnell up to testify under subpoena, even though lawmakers knew the Peanut Corporation of America boss would take the Fifth. Before calling him to the witness table, they heard from the grieving relatives of Parnell's victims. They made him take the oath, then invited him to sample some of product he shipped even though he knew it had tested positive for salmonella. Finally, they forced him and his lawyers to take a quarter-mile perp walk on Capitol Hill, chased by television cameras and reporters jamming microphones in his face and shouting questions:

"Mr. Parnell, did you put profits ahead of the public's health?"

"People died, sir. Do you have anything to say to their families?"

Parnell, limping as he fled on foot, jaywalked across Independence Avenue, stealing anxious glances at the pursuing pack of cameras as his lawyer urgently worked his cellphone to locate their getaway car. The fleeing peanut tycoon had to backtrack when his entourage was blocked by a fence on the Capitol grounds, eventually finding their Suburban near the U.S. Botanic Garden. Only when the cameras had given up the chase did Parnell smile and accept a congratulatory pat on the back from a colleague.

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/11/AR2009021104224.html

[47of74]

1. Only one year????

The government only banned them from contracts for one f--king year?!?! It should be one thousand years before those maggots ever get another government contract!

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. I have no problem with the company continuing in business,

so long as the management who KNEW they were distributing poison go to jail and the plant passes stringent inspections.

[n2doc]

2. Someone needs to hurry up and indict him

Some time in jail might loosen his tongue...

[47of74]

4. And no damn country club prisons either

Some place similar to Fort Madison here in Iowa will do.

[n2doc]

6. I think this would do

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_State_Prison

[Mudoria]

3. I look into my crystal ball and forsee

a cell with Mr. Parnell's name written on it.

[frylock]

5. it may be time for a revival of vigilante justice..

and i'm serious as a fucking heart attack.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. Apparently, there's no other kind of justice available

Sad.

[tularetom]

7. He had a Ronald Raygun style Gumby-lookin hairdo

Asswipe should have to spend the rest of his life personally apologizing to the families of the people he killed and sickened with his shitty peanut products.

From his cell UNDER some federal prison. Where he is fed nothing but peanut butter at every meal.

[BonnieJW]

9. I'm not an attorney, but

can't any of the victims file criminal charges against him? There seems to be clear evidence that this person acted knowingly.