Van Hollen Becomes Attorney General/Enabler

Only Wisconsin lets first-time drunk drivers off with a ticket and our Attorney General, J. B. Van Hollen, likes that weak approach.

And you wonder why we lead the nation in drunk driving? Or binge drinking? It's because we have an attitude so permissive towards alcohol that we encourage its abuse, and that includes giving a wrist slap to what every other state treats as a criminal offense.

Or why Mothers Against Drunk Driving says that most OWI drivers in fatal crashes have no prior offenses?

The state DOT has an online OWI calculator: check it out.

For example, a 170-pound man is over the limit having had five drinks in a two-hour period.

Would you care to meet that 'legal' driver out on the road at bar closing time, even if he'd had only four?

Women get drunk faster - - three drinks (yes, that means three beers) consumed in a two-hour period puts a woman weighing 130 pounds over the legal limit of 0.08, according to the calculator.

And if that driver got stopped, would you assume it's the first time he or she had drunk that much alcohol in a two-hour period? You've got to build up some tolerance to alcohol in order to be able to begin the drive home, and not have fallen asleep or flat on face down in the parking lot first.

It's behaviour we wouldn't tolerate if it involved a gun, or explosives, or any other item, or issue, or reckless behavior - - and in Wisconsin, it leads to loss of life.

Nearly half the fatal car and motorcycle crashes in Wisconsin annually are alcohol-related, DOT statistics show.

It's a "Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free-Card" available to every person on our highways.

Put there by our lawmakers, and now endorsed by our Top Cop.

Even GOP conservative talker and one-time AG candidate Jeff Wagner finds Van Hollen's enabling too much to bear.