People have been calling to ask me who they can blame for Jesse James Cowans. They want to know how a convicted murderer who buried the riskometer needle in the red zone could be set free to kill again - this time, a 69-year-old grandmother. ''Who is accountable?'' they ask.
The sad answer is ''Nobody.''
The parole board can't be blamed. Too overworked. They had to let him out sooner or later. A 15-to-life sentence doesn't mean an actual human lifetime. It's measured in dog time - about 12 years, max.
The prison director can't be blamed. He only appoints parole board members. He says the ''system'' is the problem. But you can't fire a ''system'' or grab it by the lapels and shake it.
So nobody is to blame. Nobody is accountable for anything. Not anymore.
Clermont County Prosecutor Don White says of the Cowans case, ''This is what the death penalty was made for.'' But then he has to admit it wasn't made very well. In Ohio, a sentence of ''death'' actually means ''life on death row,'' or maybe release in a few years if a judge or lawyer makes a technical error.
In the 1990s, truth is variable, with no consequence.
You don't have to O.D. on O.J.'s latest lame alibis to see how the rule applies nearly everywhere you look.
Baltimore Orioles player Roberto Alomar spit in an umpire's face, then blamed the umpire for being too ''bitter'' since his young son died.
What he did makes Reds owner Marge Schott look like Mother Teresa. It takes your breath away - but it didn't take him out of the lineup.
No consequence.
Here in Cincinnati, former Reds player Deion Sanders ran over a cop with his motorscooter, and two juries could hardly wait to acquit him before they asked for autographs. Now you're more likely to see Deion hustling pizzas in commercials than running plays for the Dallas Cowboys.
No consequence.
Remember when University of Cincinnati players Danny Fortson and Art Long were busted last year for being disorderly, intoxicated and slugging a policeman's horse? They were acquitted. Now Mr. Fortson expects to appear soon on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
No consequence.
Anthony Edwards came home to his Price Hill home, drank a 40-ounce beer, fell asleep and left his three kids alone in an attic lined with cardboard, playing with matches and fireworks. The kids, ages 5, 3 and 18 months, died in a fire as he rescued his dog and a cat. ''Sometimes, I do feel a little bit guilty 'cause I didn't get up,'' he said. The jury heard evidence that the Edwards home was repeatedly investigated for child abuse and neglect. But he was acquitted of manslaughter and child endangering.
No consequence.
At the Republican convention in San Diego, I watched Republicans stretch the truth like spandex shorts on Rush Limbaugh. But in Chicago, Democrats discarded truth entirely, like yesterday's fashions, and strutted proudly in garish designer lies about ''deep Medicare cuts'' and ''the 100,000 new cops President Clinton has put on the streets.''
I heard Master of Mendacity George Stephanopoulos rewrite Bob Dole's acceptance speech into a personal attack on teachers, followed by Rep. Dick Gephardt twisting the Republican Contract like a clown making balloon poodles at a birthday party. The delegates oooohed and ahhhed.
No consequence.
The same tortured statistics and shameless distortions have been peddled on TV in a $30 million ad campaign by the AFL-CIO.
No consequence.
The federal S&L cops who threw Charles Keating in the slammer and indicted S&L board members for crimes such as appearing at meetings, suddenly has no interest in the latest S&L fraud suspect, Hillary Clinton, because she doesn't ''recollect'' the work she did for the Castle Grande fraud in Arkansas.
No consequence.
Hugh Grant, Dick Morris, Susan MacDougal. Big raises for the bosses at failing schools. The sudden ''cure'' and release of Raymond Tanner by a Dayton mental hospital six years after he beheaded his wife. Travelgate firings, lies blaming the Waco inferno on child abuse, Whitewater stonewalling, ''leaked'' FBI files. American soldiers killed in a Saudi Arabia terrorist bombing because of rank incompetence. Thousands of unborn children mutilated by partial-birth abortion, thanks to a veto based on the myth that they are ''rare.'' Saddam reloading for another war as our defense secretary retreats and declares ''victory.''
No consequence.
Equal opportunity immunity is so American. Even a low-life con like Jesse James Cowan can get away with murder just like a wealthy Ted Kennedy. It's the land of the free (from responsibility) - led by a president of no consequence.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
They don't have to lie or twist the truth the way the Clinton campaign has. Just tell it. The White House file cabinet is so full of inviting targets they can't close the drawers with a crow bar. There aren't enough letters in the alphabet for all the Clinton scandals. Go to file ''C'' and you find ''Cattle Futures'' and ''Castle Grande S&L fraud.'' Skip to ''W'' and it's stuffed with ''Waco,'' ''Whitewater'' and ''Webster Hubbell.'' The ''F'' file is crammed with ''FBI-Filegate,'' ''Firings, Travel Office,'' ''Files Found in Hillary's Library'' and ''Foster, Vincent.''
Start anywhere. But start yesterday.
Instead, the Dole-Kemp campaign is tiptoeing down the ''high road'' to oblivion. Here's an actual debate exchange on Medicare:
Kemp: ''Folks, they have no plan. They have absolutely no plan.''
Gore: ''Let me make clear what the president's position is. We will save Medicare and we will stop efforts to hurt Medicare.''
Did Mr. Kemp respond with an incredulous ''SEE?!'' Did he roll his eyes and say, ''Wow, Al, that's specific.'' Did he even ask the question Democrats fear most: ''So how will you do that?''
No. He launched a cruise missile on foreign policy that exploded in the sand: ''Don't bomb before breakfast.'' SEE?!
It was more of the same the next day.
It started promising enough.
Ohio Gov. George Voinovich said, ''Regardless of what the pundits say, this election is about character and keeping your word.'' The crowd cheered.
Colin Powell launched laser-guided smart bombs. The crowd cheered.
Jack Kemp said, ''Clinton thinks the job of the president is to take care of the American people. Bob Dole thinks the job of the president is to cut taxes and let the American people take care of themselves.'' The crowd cheered.
Bob Dole said, ''Building a bridge to the truth, that's what I want to talk about today.'' The crowd cheered.
But then he flinched and went off on - stop the presses! - taxes. The crowd yawned. At least I did.
Mr. Dole said, ''What oughta scare you is four more years of Clinton-Gore.'' But he didn't say why more indictments could bring a Watergate crisis if Mr. Clinton is re-elected.
He said, ''This election is about trust.'' But he didn't say why people who still trust Mr. Clinton live in two states: self-delusion and denial.
A woman standing next to me held a toddler in one arm and a large sign in the other that said, ''Four generations of women support Bob Dole.'' I asked her and her mother what Dole should do.
''He ought to do a little more to attack Clinton's character,'' said Jean Ann Zimmerman of Lakeside Park, Ky., Generation Two.
''If he does, they will say he's a mean man,'' warned her daughter, Amy Russert of Hyde Park, Generation Three.
That about says it all. This campaign is so ''clean'' it's sanitized of messy truth. So we talk about Generation One (Medicare) and Generation Four (more spending for ''the children''), but if Mr. Dole's Generation Two dares to question the below-zero morals, ethics and integrity of the first president from Generation Three, that's ''mean.''
Maybe I'll get that flu shot after all. I may need it before they debate again.
Peter Bronson is editorial page editor of The Enquirer. If you have questions or comments, call 768-8301, or write to 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.
