By Clark Goldband

Nobody asked me but I believe Martha Stewart got was she deserved. Many in the media have made the case that she’s been unfairly prosecuted. “She’s just being singled out because she’s a woman!” “She’s not as bad as Enron or WorldCom, why don’t they go after them?” And whether or not these arguments have any merit, it cannot be argued that Martha lied to federal investigators; she was reckless, she was arrogant, and she broke the law.

Ms. Stewart wanted to save her token position of $60,000 worth of stock in ImClone, an insignificant portion of her wealth. Stewart found out the day before from her broker about bad news that would take the stock down the next morning. She told her broker to sell the shares.

So what’s the big deal right? Well this type of “insider information” is illegal. One can make the argument that very few people know this, well Martha sure did, she used to be a stockbroker.

Martha was successfully prosecuted with lying to investigators. Most pundits believe she will spend at least a year in prison. To make matters worse had she just simply come out right away and apologized she could have paid a fine, received a slap on the wrist, donated some dust ruffles, and come out of the situation scot free.

By maintaining she did no wrong Martha only rallied federal prosecutors further to put her away. Newsweek is reporting that Stewart was offered at least two plea bargain deals in the past few months that would have spared her prison time, she refused both. When Stewart began lying to prosecutors, she challenged them, and the federal government got the last laugh.

Martha Stewart needs to leave the spotlight (she might not have a choice) and take on a mythical role, almost like Betty Crocker. We know of what the fictional Ms. Crocker stands for, but we don’t know the details of her day-to-day life. When the consumer sees the face of Betty Crocker they know exactly what they are getting. There’s no arguing of the quality and value of Martha Stewart products, but after the guilty verdict on Friday there is a question of the quality of Martha Stewart as a person. ________________________

Nobody asked me but I think President Bush has the right to use Sept. 11 as a campaign issue. Wake up America… it’s what has defined his presidency. On Aug. 11, 2001 the hot topic of the Bush presidency was stem cell research. For the past three years national security has been the cornerstone issue in our country. Whether you agree with the President or not, there is no argument that how the administration responded after the Sept. 11 attacks need to be debated. It stuns me that members of the democratic party believe that this topic is off limits because quite frankly there are a lot of soft spots that they could hammer Bush on.

With that said, President Bush’s campaign commercial featuring a flag draped dead body being excavated out of Ground Zero is simply despicable. We know about ground zero, and we know how it’s changed our country; it’s not necessary to bring up images that are considered indecent to many, especially when the same administration freaks out over a flash of a breast. This image used in this partisan context is much more offensive to the American public. The least the Bush-Cheney team could have done was contact the family of the person they used to at least seek permission. Talking about an issue is one thing, exploiting an issue is another.

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