Repubs Rally 'Round Wife Beater

[WoodyD]

A Republican state legislator in North Dakota was recently arrested for the second time for beating his wife. Of course the staunch family-values party immediately denounced his actions and forced him to resig . . . nah, what am I saying?

Check out this ND political blog

http://www.northdecoder.com/index.php/David-Weiler.html

http://www.northdecoder.com/index.php/It-Takes-A-Recall-Effort-For-John-Hoeven-To-Oppose-Domestic-Violence.html

Then listen to Kris Kitko’s song, “You can beat your wife just once, not twice.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voeb4Yc30Gc

Kitko has started a recall effort for Weiler. The “Governor Hoeven” in the song is the Republican nominee running for the seat being vacated by Democrat Byron Dorgan. Hoeven is favored to win over his opponent, Democrat Tracy Potter.

http://tracypotterforsenate.com/

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Nice. Real nice.

[catbyte]

2. A regular Prince Charming

:puke: :puke: :puke:

Diane

Anishnabe in MI

[WhiteTara]

10. some one would actually vote for someone who

looks like that? My Goddess, how stupid do you have to be to have no powers of discernment?

[paulsby]

3. more correctly, it's

"rally round ACCUSED wife beater"

as somebody who has made scores of DV arrests, i know better than anybody that accusation =/= guilt

it's not just an "innocent until proven guilty" thang.

it's a mandatory arrest based on mere probable cause (and usually based on one party's allegations) is hardly proof of guilt

i know somebody charged with domestic violence who was later found innocent. he was lucky. even the innocent get wrongly convicted, too.

do we assume he's guilty because of his political party?

[Winterblues]

4. You certainly are right, he deserves his day in court

People are damn quick to judge, but maybe we could use the Bush* Doctrine and jail him anyway by saying he could someday be a threat...

[paulsby]

5. thank you

as one who deals with these investigations all the time, NOBODY wants domestic abusers brought to justice more than me.

but i also recognize that just because somebody is arrested does not mean they committed a DV crime.

the fact that there is a strong nexus between accuser and accused and often all sorts of other issues going on, makes it both overreported (in terms of false reports that target specific suspects) and UNDERreported (too many victims afraid to report actual abuse).

fwiw, i've been a victim several times, and never reported it. maybe it's a double standard, but i simply didn't think it cricket

[NorthDecoder]

6. Well...

As is indicated in the story...

He did plead guilty to assaulting his wife last year. Sure, he's not necessarily proven to be guilty of the second charge at this point. But he can't deny that he assaulted his wife last year. That's a given.

Like you, Paulsby, I know people who were arrested for domestic violence who did not do it. But that's not really relevant when you're talking about a guy who admitted to assaulting his wife. What we're talking about now is whether he should continue being a legislator after (1) being convicted of assaulting his wife a year ago, and (2) being accused of a second act of domestic violence.

In my view, he should have resigned after he assaulted her the first time. I really don't care one way or the other whether he beat her up the second time. I thought he should have resigned after getting convicted the first time.

I don't think this is mentioned in the blog post or the youtube video, but when he assaulted her the first time, it was right smack-dab in the middle of the 80 day every-other-year legislative session here in North Dakota. And nobody in his party called for any accountability. The governor sat quiet. The majority leader in the House sat quiet. They all seemed to be saying, "This sort of thing happens. Men beat their wives sometimes. We'll let it slide unless/until he gets convicted of doing it again. Maybe."

I think that's shameful.

[paulsby]

8. to me, among other things it depends on the details

of the first assault, as to whether he should resign.

there is a broad umbrella of acts that constitute DV assault.

but i also don't think we assume he's guilty on the 2nd case, because he committed a DV act in the past.

in regards to the first assault, what exactly was it ? roundhouse punch, slap, etc.

i've been DV assaulted several times (slaps). those are certainly less serious, while still crimes, than a roundhouse closed fist, for example.

but good points

[Bluenorthwest]

7. More correctly, it is 'rally round CONVICTED wife beater'

For he is just that already. So the point you are making is not accurate. He's a once convicted, now twice accused individual.

[paulsby]

9. i stand corrected

he is convicted of a prior offense.

i am certainly not assuming he is guilty in THIS case, but he was found guilty (actually pled guilty) in a previous case, and i was wrong to miss that.

my bad