Mar 09, 2008
Time's almost up to deal with it 
 

- Wilmington Star- News online

The scheduled March 31 criminal trial of state Rep. Thomas Wright might spare his colleagues from the distasteful duty of expelling him, as a six-member committee has recommended. But that's only if the legal proceedings reach a definite conclusion well before the General Assembly returns for its "short" session May 13. 
 
If the six-count felony trial is delayed, or if a convicted Wright appeals the verdict, legislators will have no choice but to meet in a special session to rid themselves of a shameful colleague who appears beyond shame. 
 
The special House ethics committee spent four days reviewing now-familiar evidence that Wright, among other things, accepted and solicited "campaign contributions" that he put into his own pocket; failed over six years to report about 400 contributions as the law required, or reported them too late for voters to take them into account; and that he pressured a state employee to write a lying letter that Wright used to con a bank into giving him a $150,000 loan. When the employee's lie was uncovered, he got fired for obliging the Honorable. 
 
One of Wright's lawyers, a decent man doing his best to defend the indefensible, suggested that his client be allowed to wriggle off the hook by filing all those reports now. That's like Willy Sutton's lawyer asking that he be forgiven if he would pay back what he robbed from all those banks. 
 
Committee chairman Rick Glazier, a fellow Democrat, cited clear and convincing evidence that Wright's "deliberate decision(s), made year in and year out, through 22 reporting periods" constituted "breathtakingly massive fraud." Glazier noted that, "Rep. Wright holds public office because of his lies." 
 
Wright told those lies to the people who voted for him and the people who contributed to his campaigns. He betrayed them all. He embarrassed his friends and supporters. 
 
It's up to the courts to determine whether he is guilty of crimes. It's up to his colleagues to determine that he is not fit to serve in the General Assembly. And they don't have much time.