There's also a measure of hypocrisy to all of this. Gov. Richardson is a staunch supporter of red-light cameras. Mayor Fenty supports his city's red-light and speed cameras, despite the fact that D.C.'s red-light cameras have been plagued by charges of corruption, poor maintenance and the tendency to issue tickets to innocent motorists. Gov. Rendell presided over the installation of the first surveillance cameras in Philadelphia (after, it's worth adding, a $75,000 campaign contribution from the company that was awarded the contract to install them).

All these politicians have supported laws that could generally be seen as anti-motorist, be it allowing for camera surveillance of public roads, increasing fines and punishments for traffic offenses or adding new offenses to the books. All sanctimoniously sign these bills while mouthing high-minded rhetoric about public safety (usually, such bills are more about generating revenue for city coffers). But the minute "public safety" conflicts with their own sense of self-importance, these politicians are quick to dispense with the laws they expect the rest of us to follow.

High executive pay hasn't quite reached that status of a bipartisan "crisis," but it's approaching it. The Democratic senator from Virginia, Jim Webb, fulminated against it in his response to President Bush's State of the Union address last year. Bush himself, in a "State of the Economy" speech on Wall Street, urged corporate boards to "step up to their responsibilities" to better manage CEO pay.

CEOs might be paid extremely well, but they don't have easy jobs. Their performance is always evaluated by the inescapable taskmaster, the financial markets. When they are found lacking, they are canned -- witness Kevin Rollins at Dell, out as CEO after just two and a half years. CEOs last on average about six years in their jobs.

There are always examples of excess. The CEO of Home Depot, Robert Nardelli, stoked outrage when he left the company with a $200 million severance package. His contract was a relic of the bull market of 2000, but it was understandable that Home Depot had desperately wanted a highly regarded former GE executive. One theory says that corporate boards of publicly traded companies are too cozy with management, so they dole out excessive pay. This happens sometimes. But companies owned by private-equity firms with a direct stake in their success pay similarly large packages to entice and keep hard-charging CEOs. The market knows what it's doing here. Politicians don't.  

Closing Gitmo takes no effort at all, but that's only the beginning -- and it reveals that the real issue has never been Guantanamo Bay at all. The real issue, one all three presidential candidates have avoided, is whether we release known terrorists and allow them the opportunity to attack us again.

In closing Gitmo, we have two choices. One would be to ship the detainees to another detention facility outside of the U.S., which would only be a geographical change. It would win us nothing in terms of international approval, and would likely be much less secure than Gitmo. The second choice would be to bring the detainees to the U.S. and either use the civilian courts or get Congress to approve indeterminate detention without trial inside the U.S. -- essentially recognizing the danger the terrorists pose and treating them like we treat them now at Gitmo, using military tribunals instead of courts.

Again, this would only be a change in location, and hardly a salutary one at that for Americans.

Will sentencing child rapists to death deter future child rapes? Of course not, but deterrence isn’t the only reason to mete out the death penalty. The concept of retributive justice underpins our nation’s criminal laws. In our pampered, politically correct, psycho-babbling society, we’ve forgotten that criminals must be punished -- not merely removed from society or rehabilitated -- and punishing criminals is just, whether or not punishment deters future crimes.

Our government is charged with protecting citizens and punishing lawbreakers, and perverts who hurt the most vulnerable citizens should receive harsh punishment. Man’s idea of harsh punishment, however, pales in comparison to God’s. One day each of us will face the ultimate Judge. I hope Kennedy and other child rapists suffer for all eternity in the deepest bowels of hell.