And it's a good thing too.
Prison is the final frontier of civil rights. A Democrat may become the first woman president in prison. Prisons are already full of Democrats and Democratic politicians. Just as we overcame our prejudices over illegal aliens and learned to recognize them as undocumented Democrats, so too Senator Virgil Smith can serve as a role model for imprisoned Democrats.
Someday he too might even be president.
State Sen. Virgil Smith began serving a 10-month jail sentence today, but never resigned from his job as a legislator before being escorted out of the courtroom by deputies.
Smith had agreed to resign as part of a sentencing agreement in the case before Wayne County Circuit Judge Lawrence Talon ruled that Smith cannot be forced to resign from office as part of his punishment for shooting his ex-wife's Mercedes-Benz.
He shot a Beemer. Clearly this man was protesting his ex-wife's privilege.
Prosecutors argued today they should now be able to retool their offer in the case and asked for the plea in the case to vacated.
Talon rejected the prosecution's request, saying doing so "would not serve the interests of justice.”
The interests of justice would be better served by a Michigan Democratic senator casting votes from prison.
After Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey asked for an ordering vacating the plea, Smith's attorneys, Godfrey Dillard, asked the court not to vacate the agreement.
"I’m asking the court to let it stand, allow the senator to stand on principle, stand against what we view is excessive power by the prosecutor,” Dillard said.
Virgil clearly is a man of principle. I don't know what principle except Never Resign. But that seems to be the dominant principle in politics today.
Until that happens, Smith would continue to receive his $71,685 annual salary plus benefits.
Okay, so we found the principle. And the principal.
“Lets call it what it is, he is taking advantage now of what the court has done to say he wanted to do that all along,” she said, adding he had just told her in the witness room "I wish my client would just go ahead and resign."
If anyone can make sense of that sentence, there's a glass of lemonade in it for them.
Before Smith left the courtroom to begin his sentence, his father, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Virgil C. Smith, asked permission to give his son a hug.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Democratic Party.
It's unclear whether Virgil will also have to resign as chair of the legislative black caucus.