Melissa Gilbert’s indefensible defense

Yesterday, a Detroit News column blasted MI-08 candidate Melissa Gilbert for defending movie director Roman Polanski, who was arrested on charges of “rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14.” Polanski fled the United States hours before he was due to be sentenced but was arrested in Switzerland in 2009 on a U.S. warrant for this crime.

That’s when Gilbert said on national television that Polanski’s drugging and raping of a 13-year-old girl is “a gray area when Momma is in the building.”  Gilbert also said, “I think that the punishment [of Polanski] at this point may be excessive. I don’t know, that’s just my opinion.”

NRCC Comment: “Melissa Gilbert went on national television and publicly questioned whether it is a crime for a 40-year-old to drug and rape a 13-year-old girl if the victim’s mother is on the premises. There is no excuse that Melissa Gilbert can give to justify her defense a 40-year-old movie director who drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl.” –NRCC Spokesman Chris Pack