SACRAMENTO, CA - Bill Lockyer, California’s Attorney General, is an authoritarian thug who should resign. That’s the view of Tom Palmer, a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, based on a statement Lockyer made in a press conference about Kenneth Lay, chairman of Enron Corporation.

“I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says ‘Hi, my name is Spike, honey,’” Lockyer said.

Palmer is one of the few to consider the serious implications of that statement. The Attorney General of California is the chief law enforcement official of the most populous state. But as holder of that office, Mr. Lockyer, “not only has admitted that rape is a regular feature of the state’s prison system, but also that he considers rape a part of the punishment he can inflict on others.” What if, Palmer speculates, the head of Enron were female?

Further, Palmer says, “He has publicly stated that he would like to personally arrange the rape of a Texas businessman who has not even been charged with any illegal behavior.” This leads Palmer to conclude that Lockyer is “an authoritarian thug, someone wholly unsuited to holding an office of public trust.” Lockyer, who sponsored California’s hate-crimes law, singled out Mr. Lay because he is the chairman of a Texas-based company that is the world’s largest energy trader. Apparently, this justifies the appalling threats Lockyer made.

The Attorney General’s statements, says Palmer, reveal what imprisonment really entails in California. But they also symbolize the response of the Davis Administration to the energy crisis. “Lockyer and Gov. Gray Davis,” says Palmer, “seem to think that the best way to keep the lights on is to threaten electricity producers with brute force, rather than offer to pay competitive rates in competitive markets. Are energy producers to blame for California’s energy problems? No. Bad policies, including rigid controls on retail prices of electricity, are the cause of the problem, not the people who generate energy.”

True to form, other leading Democrats, such as Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, want to prosecute energy producers under California’s “three-strikes” laws, intended for violent criminals. The Davis Administration views the crisis as entirely due to “price gouging” by Texas energy companies. The approach Attorney General Lockyer is taking, however, is not new, notes Palmer.

“Scapegoating producers and threatening them with violence is an old ploy of authoritarians. Californians should not stand for it.” Palmer, therefore, concludes: “Lockyer’s remarks merit public disgrace and removal from office. After all, rape is not a form of legal justice in America, is it?”

It is of some significance that criminal lobbies such as the ACLU and prisoner-rights groups let the Attorney General’s statement pass without comment. So did editorial writers at major papers around the state, including the Sacramento Bee, a kind of Democratic Party newsletter. At this writing, Mr. Lockyer is still in office and has yet to publish a response. When he does, we will cite it extensively in this column.

- K. Lloyd Billingsley