Sarah Palin: Why The Dems Got Trouble

By Dan Rattiner

If you wonder why the nomination of Sarah Palin as candidate for vice president is going to be big trouble for the Democrats, just pay attention to this joke. It's about justice in a small-town courtroom.

"Who's next?" the judge asks.

The bailiff calls a name and a good-looking woman gets out of her seat and heads up to face the judge. She smiles at him.

"The charge?" the judge asks.

"Failing to stop at a stop sign," the bailiff says.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" the judge asks.

"Yes, your honor," she says. "The thing is it was show-and-tell at school for my son. He's in the second grade. And so I put my son in the back of the car, carried the fishbowl with the goldfish in it out to the car and strapped it into the front. Then I headed off to school. So, in a little while, I was coming down this big hill, and to tell you the truth, your honor, I just didn't see the stop sign until the last minute. I could have stopped if I hit the brakes hard. But you know, if I had, the water and the fish would have gone all over the floor."

"Case dismissed," the judge says. "Next?"

The bailiff calls a man to come up. He is a bald-headed man in a badly fitting suit. He is sweating a lot. And he is very nervous.

"What's the charge?"

"Failing to come to a stop at a stop sign."

The judge leans forward. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?" he asks.

The man speaks in a very heavy German accent, and, stuttering nervously, presents charts and photographs that show the location of the stop sign, the parked cars and the cross street. Occasionally, when he refers to the judge, he calls him, "Your Highness."

"150 dollars," the judge said.

Back to Contents