Saturday, December 20, 2008

Wood should write 100 times, "You should not drink and drive"

Add the Appleton Post-Crescent (is that a half moon?) to the list of newspapers that wants to punish State Rep. Jeff Wood by making him write legislation.
They found Wood's car pulled over, with Wood urinating on the highway's shoulder. He had smashed into a caution sign, which he originally denied to police, and a snowbank before stopping. His blood alcohol content was 0.15 percent, about twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Marijuana was found in his car.

The State Patrol charged Wood with operating while intoxicated, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He had previous convictions for drunken driving in 1990 and 1991. He has apologized and said he accepts "full responsibility."

Unfortunately, Wood isn't the first state official to get caught driving drunk. But, as the latest, especially in this time of increased focus on the issue, he could take a stand on changing the laws to better reflect the seriousness of the problem in the state.

Everybody else is driving drunk, why not Wood?

Seriously though. Wouldn't it be better to ask the other 98 members of the assembly to draft tougher laws and ask the pot-smoking, three-time drunk driving Wood to resign?