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Rick Nolan and the politics of convicted pedophiles

HotAir's Jazz Shaw highlights the tricky politics of inviting convicted pedophiles to political fundraisers in this article. First, here's the transcript of the NRCC's ad:

Meet Peter Yarrow. He was arrested and thrown in jail for child molestation after he admitted to taking “immoral and improper” actions with an underage girl.

But now our Congressman Rick Nolan is raising money with Yarrow. Inviting him into our community. He’s even invited him to his official congressional office. An office paid for by Minnesota taxpayers.

The Duluth News Tribune says “there’s no way Nolan should have picked Yarrow for the event” and that he “shouldn’t have been booked in the first place.”

Yet, Rick Nolan refused to cancel the event, or even answer questions about it.

Rick Nolan. Putting sex offenders ahead of Minnesota families.

Shaw correctly points out that that's a pretty harsh ad. What he didn't point out is that Yarrow didn't just take "immoral and improper" actions against an underage girl. Yarrow made "immoral and improper" actions towards a 14-year-old girl and her 17-year-old sister.

From that perspective, the NRCC's ad isn't nearly harsh enough. Here's Shaw's take on the ad:

Wow. That’s pretty rough even by the standards of no hold barred politics, but Nolan really brought it on himself. In any event, it seems to have finally sunk in to the Congressman that this might not be exactly the type of image he wants to project to Minnesota voters and on Friday he wound up realizing that he had, er… a scheduling conflict.

Meanwhile, Nolan attempted to downplay Yarrow's misdeeds this way:

Speaking earlier Friday, Nolan said he still expected to attend the fundraising event despite the challenge from the NRCC.

"I'm into forgiveness and redemption, not still trying to condemn the man," the congressman said. "What he did was wrong and terrible, but he's spent a lot of time redeeming himself.


Yarrow has done lots of damage to this nation as a progressive activist. He did lots of permanent damage to 2 innocent little girls. Redemption can only come from admitting that you did something horrific that ruined 2 innocent girls' lives. Redemption can't come from a presidential pardon.