A lame attempt to smear Mitch

I guess the prospect of a Mitch Daniels run for the presidency has some people worried.

An effort is being made to link him to a controversial Indiana Supreme Court decision that people do not have the right to resist if police illegally enter their home.

The link is Daniels’s appointment to the Indiana Supreme Court of Justice Steven David, who cast a decisive vote in the 3-2 ruling last Thursday. David is a former Boone Circuit Court judge. We previously lived in his county, so I know who he is and consider him a generally competent jurist.

Critics also claim Daniels, as governor of Indiana, could or should have directed the Indiana Attorney General to drop the case and moot the appeal, claiming that this somehow demonstrates that “he is not qualified to run for President of the United States.”

That assertion neglects the fact that the Indiana Attorney General is elected to his office and is not answerable to the governor or to any other elected official.

I think the decision is wrong and will be struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as unconstitutional. Whether I have the right to resist an illegal police home invasion is absurdly academic. I think most rational people believe we have an inherent right to resist an illegal police home invasion, but it’s probably unwise to exercise that right. Your heirs will probably win the wrongful death suit that follows, but that’s no comfort when you’re dead.

It’s also a mistake to think that Gov. Daniels necessarily agrees with every decision Justice David has made or will make in the future.

As to whether Daniels is qualified for the presidency, I’ll put his administrative and personal credentials up against those of the incumbent any day.