Sirhan remains where he belongs — in prison
Give Gov. Gavin Newsom credit: Whatever you might think of him on other matters, he got it completely right on Sirhan Sirhan.
No. 1, Sirhan committed an unpardonable crime against America that changed our history for the worse.
No. 2, although some conspiracy theorists question Sirhan’s guilt, the evidence is overwhelming that he murdered Sen. Robert F. Kennedy by shooting him in the back of the head.
No. 3, the convicted killer now says he can’t remember whether he shot Kennedy. That’s very hard to believe since he confessed several times in the past. At any rate, it tarnishes the credibility of any remorse he might express.
No. 4, he deserves to die in prison.
That last thought is mine. Newsom didn’t quite go there Thursday in announcing his refusal to free Sirhan, rejecting a two-person parole panel’s recommendation that the 77-year-old killer be released after 53 years behind bars.
Newsom was clear and unequivocal.
Sirhan’s assassination of Kennedy “is among the most notorious crimes in American history,” the governor asserted. “Mr. Sirhan lacks the insight that would prevent him from making the same types of dangerous decisions he made in the past.”
In an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, Newsom wrote that “Kennedy’s assassination not only changed the course of this nation and robbed the world of a promising young leader, it also left his 11 children without a father and his wife without a husband. … Millions of Americans lost a unifier in a time of national turmoil and grief.”
Sirhan shot Kennedy in a crowded pantry room of the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles minutes after the senator declared victory in the pivotal 1968 California presidential primary.
The Kennedy family was split on whether Sirhan should be paroled, but the large majority opposed it.
Ethel Kennedy, 93, and six of the Kennedy children issued a statement Thursday thanking Newsom.
“Driven by maliciousness and resentment, the killer’s violent act contradicted the values of openness, dialogue and democratic change that Robert Kennedy embraced and that underlie our political system,” the family wrote.
In his written decision, Newsom stated that “the gravity of Mr. Sirhan’s crimes alone counsels against his release.”
We’ll never know to what extent Sirhan changed America by killing the Democrats’ leading presidential contender. But we can speculate.
I have little doubt that Kennedy’s California triumph would have propelled him to the Democratic nomination at the party’s convention in Chicago. Instead, the convention was torn apart by bloody anti-Vietnam War rioting. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, a war supporter, was nominated. The party fractured and Republican Richard Nixon narrowly won.
If Kennedy had carried the party banner, he would have energized Democrats and beaten Nixon. He would have eagerly withdrawn from Vietnam much sooner than Nixon did, saving thousands of American lives.
There wouldn’t have been Nixon’s psychotic Watergate scandal that further soured Americans against their government. And school integration in the South would have been swifter.
No Nixon would have meant no George H.W. Bush, who was made a political star by the GOP president. That also would have meant no Bush 2.
Ronald Reagan’s presidency would have moved up four years to when he was younger and more vibrant. He’d have beaten Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Bill Clinton still would have been elected but succeeded by either Democrat Al Gore or Republican John McCain. Not George W. Bush. And we probably would not have gotten suckered into a too-costly Iraq War.
That’s all guesswork. What’s certain is that Sirhan will remain where he belongs — locked up. Thanks to Newsom.