Blast from the past

I'm watching the Republican presidential debate. Or at least, keeping an eye on the bastards. This is the sort of thing tht makes Mark Kleiman complain that Rudy seems to be running for "Sadist-in-Chief. Which, incidentally, naturally reminded me of Mark Steyn's still-hilarious take on Kerry's stance on the death penalty:

The senator's opposed to the death penalty. Fair enough. A lot of folks have a visceral revulsion at the principle of state execution. But whoa, hang on, no, that's not it. He's not some milksop Dukakis type. Mr. Kerry's opposed to the death penalty because it's too wimpy. "Putting somebody to sleep on a gurney" isn't cruel enough for Mr. Kerry's tastes. Keep him in jail watching cable TV decade after decade. "That is tough, my friend," says Mr. Kerry, not like dying, which -- in case he hasn't mentioned it this soundbite -- is something he knows a lot about: Only gutless pansy types let these killers off easy by sending 'em to Old Sparky. This is Mr. Kerry's answer to compassionate conservatism: sadistic liberalism.