Shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

You’ve probably already heard how Gov. Perdue feels about the inmates who’ve completed their 70s-style life sentences and are now due to be released. And you’ve probably heard it more than once. Now Bev’s takin’ it on the chin from the N&O and the News & Record. As well she might, this is a matter of law, not a matter of taste. While the Guv’s antics may be winning her poll points, they’re disgusting people who have respect for the third branch of government. Good on Ripley Rand for acting like a judge when there must have been plenty o’ temptation to put what’s right aside for what’s popular. Just like the governor keeps doing.

I can’t decide if I like the N&R’s take best.

Perdue’s poll ratings have climbed since she took up this cause in October. Her problem, though, is that she’s appealing to emotions rather than reason. … Our leaders should save their disgust for instances when judges disregard the law. Perdue, however, is exploiting a volatile issue to direct public animosity toward the courts.”

Or do I prefer the N&O’s version?

Perdue, as governor, is not just the state’s First Politician. She’s also the head of a government that includes the co-equal judicial branch, but she’s acting as if respected judges have gone rogue. And last month she announced a plan to ‘comply’ with court rulings that would have given the lifers in question an ‘earliest unconditional release date’ of 2054. … Whichever way the issue comes out, this case should be handled with less heat and more light.

Lucky I don’t have to decide, they’re both right.

Perhaps Sarah Palin’s stealth visit to Fayetteville and its accompanying 2012 hysteria has got Bev a little confoosed about where she is in the electoral cycle. Let me assure her, the job is hers. You won, girl! Now go ‘head on and act like a governor not like a candidate. God knows we’re lousy with those. (I’m poet and didn’t know it!) We need a leader who stands behind the judicial system and its attendant vagaries. It ain’t pretty, but it’s all we got, Governor.