Just another day in Montgomery

Former Gov. Don Siegelman, who probably already would have declared for the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary if Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley weren't so popular, asked the Alabama Legislature during a press conference Friday to pass a House-
approved bill calling for mandatory castration of child molesters.

Actually, he'd like to "give them the death penalty on the first offense," but he'd settle for strapping them into the death chamber upon the second offense. And in case you still weren't sure where Siegelman stands on sex offenders, he snapped shut a pair of red garden shears at the press conference, presumably to show they indeed would be an effective way of removing a man's testicles.

The state Senate, aware that any such legislation probably would be struck down as cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, chopped the castration provision Thursday and restored the bill to the version Attorney General Troy King proposed. By the way, if you're interested in King's whereabouts, hurry up and click this link before he takes off the electronic ankle bracelet he wore while testifying before Congress this week.