JOHN HINCKLEY

A reader asks me a question that I'd like to ask all of you:

Do you suppose that if John Hinckley had, say, tried to assassinate President Clinton, that the judge (a Clinton appointee, btw) would still release him for unsupervised visits--in and around the Washington DC area?

I know what my answer is. What say you?

UPDATE: My answer, based on no more than a gut feeling, is "no." Perhaps I remember how the Clintonites blamed Oklahoma City on Rush Limbaugh. Perhaps I remember liberal acquaintances of mine mocking Ronald Reagan for his Alzheimer's, long after the man left office and long after he lost touch with reality. But I just don't trust liberals to be fair, so I assume that they will deal more harshly with someone who attacks one of their own than one who attacks someone they didn't much like anyway. After all, on whom do liberals pour most of their scorn now--Osama bin Laden or George W. Bush?