Why wasn't he tossed in a cell?????

phillies wrote:

noblehunter wrote:A free society needs to be really, really careful about throwing opposition leaders in jail. Anything short of murder, treason (as defined below), or blatant corruption provable in triplicate is probably not worth the risk of imprisonment becoming a common political tool.

Though in Massachusetts, the last iirc 4 Speakers of the House are visiting Club Fed, as is a prior Speaker of the House of the US Congress. It can be done.

If your talking about Rep Tom Delay R-TX that case was tossed on appeal and the district attorney who prosecuted the case was rebuked by the court and was later sanctioned. It's like what happened to Sen Ted Stevens R-AK got convicted case tossed on appeal.

phillies wrote:
Though in Massachusetts, the last iirc 4 Speakers of the House are visiting Club Fed, as is a prior Speaker of the House of the US Congress. It can be done.

If your talking about Rep Tom Delay R-TX that case was tossed on appeal and the district attorney who prosecuted the case was rebuked by the court and was later sanctioned. It's like what happened to Sen Ted Stevens R-AK got convicted case tossed on appeal.

I am referring to the last four or so speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

One of the headaches when dealing with corruption and scandals is what different groups will see a particular example as.

One group will see it as something criminal and the person should be jailed for. Another group will see it as business as usual why bother making a big fuss over it.

Then you have the hypocrisy of groups that will rant about their opponents corruption and scandals while they try to cover up, ignore, or justify their own sides corruption and scandals.

Government politics make all of the above many times worse.

I did wonder when I read it the first time, but then you realise High Ridges position in the opposition and the cost to the Kingdom political set-up would have been damaging (to say the least), whilst at the same time trying to respond to a unprovoked hostile act.

Also, there is no hard evidence that High Ridge did anything out of turn, just a private conversation with the Head of Government which would just make it a "he said, they said" case whilst the opposition would be arguing the whole think is to punish High Ridge for is "no doubt informed, resistance to starting an un-needed war when the Havenite Regime is trying to reform and become a reputable member of the galactic community whilst those blood thirsty centralist want a war to justify there historic prejudices"

It's basically the same reason Benjamin couldn't act against Muller

Which begs the question, Why is High Ridge now in jail? Did I miss something because although he was guilty of incredible stupidity that in itself is not a crime and according to books after WOH, he is in the local equivalent of Sing Sing.

Garth 2 wrote:
Also, there is no hard evidence that High Ridge did anything out of turn,

Bribery. Once he was no longer in power and the DoJ stopped covering up for him the scale of his illegal activities became clear. Funny how hard criminals will cling to the levers of power, eh?

ghost wrote:Which begs the question, Why is High Ridge now in jail? Did I miss something because although he was guilty of incredible stupidity that in itself is not a crime and according to books after WOH, he is in the local equivalent of Sing Sing.

Garth 2 wrote:
Also, there is no hard evidence that High Ridge did anything out of turn,

Well in Field of Dishonor, all he did was ask a question of the Prime Minister in a private conversation, immoral and unethical but covered effectively by parliamentary privilege (though I expect that a quiet (off-story) investigation was launch by JAG, though it may not have turned anything up.
However.... when he was the Prime Minister he authorised a massive diversion of government funds into whole load of schemes which weren't all legal (after if they had been legal, they wouldn't have need to cover them up).
Even Captain Oversteegen mentioned the level of corruption that High Ridge and Co were willing to embrace, there was also the money skimmed of the RMIA that was identified by Reymond
There's also the conversation between High Ridge and Lady Elaine Descroix about more than some minor book keeping errors

Taken from the Wiki
An investigation led to formal charges of corruption, malfeasance, bribery, and half a dozen other criminal activities on the part of Baron High Ridge, a dozen of his personal aides, eleven senior members of the Conservative Association in the House of Lords (including the Earl of North Hollow), two Liberal Party peers, three unaligned peers, seventeen members of the Progressive Party's representation in the House of Commons, and over two dozen prominent members of the business community

All in all very different

Garth 2 wrote:

ghost wrote:Which begs the question, Why is High Ridge now in jail? Did I miss something because although he was guilty of incredible stupidity that in itself is not a crime and according to books after WOH, he is in the local equivalent of Sing Sing.

Well in Field of Dishonor, all he did was ask a question of the Prime Minister in a private conversation, immoral and unethical but covered effectively by parliamentary privilege (though I expect that a quiet (off-story) investigation was launch by JAG, though it may not have turned anything up.
However.... when he was the Prime Minister he authorised a massive diversion of government funds into whole load of schemes which weren't all legal (after if they had been legal, they wouldn't have need to cover them up).
Even Captain Oversteegen mentioned the level of corruption that High Ridge and Co were willing to embrace, there was also the money skimmed of the RMIA that was identified by Reymond
There's also the conversation between High Ridge and Lady Elaine Descroix about more than some minor book keeping errors

Taken from the Wiki
An investigation led to formal charges of corruption, malfeasance, bribery, and half a dozen other criminal activities on the part of Baron High Ridge, a dozen of his personal aides, eleven senior members of the Conservative Association in the House of Lords (including the Earl of North Hollow), two Liberal Party peers, three unaligned peers, seventeen members of the Progressive Party's representation in the House of Commons, and over two dozen prominent members of the business community

All in all very different

And Janacek ate a pulser.