Deval Patrick, the Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts, is being attacked by his Republican rival for writing letters in support of paroling a convicted rapist, Benjamin LaGuer, who has been in jail since 1983. When a DNA test showed that LaGuer was guilty (a finding LaGuer and a bunch of DNA experts dispute), Patrick dropped his support. So, Patrick is soft on crime because he believes justice sometimes miscarries and/or because he believes in the possibility of redemption. Outrageous!

Then I saw photos of the prisoner and his erstwhile supporter.

Deval Patrick

Benjamin LaGuer

There’s something they have in common that I can’t put my finger on. Both in suits? Nah, that’s not it. The way they’re holding their hands? Nah. Similar haircuts? Nope.

Wait, no, it couldn’t be—dare I utter the unutterable word in this contest—race? Surely the Republican campaign wouldn’t have chosen this issue because—although I doubt they ever put it to themselves like this—it associates an African-American candidate with an African-American rapist. Why, the Republicans would never ever Willy Horton stoop so low as to imply that a Democratic candidate would fail to defend our women from those predatory, over-sexed Black men.

What I truly don’t understand is why the Boston Globe has been giving this charge the front page treatment. Why this one among all the other charges coming out of the desperate Republican campaign, some of which are on actual matters of substance? The Globe ought to be ashamed that it’s fallen for the Republicans’ plausibly-deniable racist appeal. [Tags: politics deval_patrick racism media journalism]

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