Senator Richard Shelby - King of Hypocrisy!
Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) says he wants all drug offenders to face harsh penalties. When Lonnie Lundy was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Jerry Lundy, Lonnie's father, wrote to Shelby asking for a dialog on drug sentencing and the use of informants. (There were never any drugs found in Lonnie's possession. He was fingered by an informant of dubious reliability who later recanted the accusation.) Shelby wrote back and stated that, "While I understand your concerns about mandatory penalties for nonviolent offenders, I believe that our nation's drug problem is serious enough to warrant harsh sentences."
One would suspect, then, when Shelby's own son, Claude, was caught in an Atlanta airport arriving on a flight from London with 13.8 grams of hashish he would have insisted on life in prison, if not the death penalty. However, one has to remember that a senator is part of this nation's "Ruling Class" and are not subject to the same laws the rest of us are. Claude was allowed to pay a $500 "administrative penalty" to Customs officials before being turned over to county sheriffs for possible state prosecution. State charges were never filed.
Details of the above mentioned incidents can be found on the web page
of The November Coalition.
Specifically, this article details Claude Shelby's arrest:
Also, there is an article about Lonnie Lundy's conviction and Jerry Lundy's letters to and from Senator Shelby:
Of course, Shelby isn't the only hypocrite. The son of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunninghame (R-CA), the sister of Rep. J. C. Watts (R-OK), the wife of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the son of Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), the son of former Education Secretary Richard Riley, the daughter of former U. S. House Ways and Means Committe chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL), the son of Rep John Murtha (D-PA), the daughter of Rep. Dean Gallo (R-NJ), the son of Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), and son of Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) have all had relatively light punishments when charged with drug offenses.