The wages of hypocrisy are death. They shouldn’t be but in at least one case they were. A man operating a photo speed enforcement van for the Department of Public Safety in Phoenix was shot to death by a motorist presumably incensed by the program. Of course that was indefensible. The man had little to do with the program’s existence. He was just doing a job. The people who adopted the program were safely in their offices.

But the hypocrisy lies in selling the program to the public as a safety measure when in fact it is primarily a revenue generator. Let me be clear, nobody should ever die for making such decisions. But there are crazies out there. And a number of them were interviewed by a Phoenix TV station later to say the guy deserved it.

If the general driving public is truly lethally offended by the photo speed enforcement program it should implement the one surest way to get the cameras removed. Slow down. Don’t speed. Don’t give the cameras anything to cite. Then watch the reaction of the public officials. Will they be ecstatic that the speed reduction program was working reducing accidents, or will they fret because it is not raising any revenue?

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If the cameras raise no revenue, they will disappear. The company operating the cameras for the state, RedFlex Traffic Systems, will not be able to justify the work involved without revenue. Oh, and by the way, a few lives will be saved, most from traffic collisions avoided, but maybe some by hypocrisy lunatics who will be better mollified.

Send a conservative to D.C.

Not totally unexpectedly, Chris Simcox has announced he is running for the U.S. Senate running against John McCain. Simcox is a strong conservative of the kind McCain once was. But McCain caught Potomac Fever and has been sliding across the aisle a lot lately (reaching out, he calls it). Cooperating with liberals may sound nice because cooperating at all sounds useful. But not always.

McCain reached out so far across the aisle, he seems to have lost his sense of direction and never came back. Arizona needs two strong conservative voices in the Senate. Jon Kyl cannot do it all. We do not have one in McCain. Maybe it’s just his age. Do politicians grow liberal as they age?

Simcox has considerable name recognition as a result of his founding of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and leading the organization seeking more stringent enforcement of the border. For a non-officeholder, he has gathered remarkable recognition. Voters will not face a total unknown opposing McCain when they vote next year for senator. They will know Simcox for the criticism he drew for being called “too conservative.” Too conservative for some, no doubt, but a welcome change from the cooperation of McCain with the liberals. That McCain-Feingold measure was a travesty.

It is a very good day for McCain to retire while he still enjoys the affection of most of the people of Arizona, if not their trust. He is a genuine war hero and there’s no gainsaying that. We owe him a debt we can never fully repay. But re-election to the Senate is not on the table.

There is no other opposition at this time to contend for this seat. Many Arizonans are longing for an alternative to John McCain. And now Chris Simcox wants to go to Washington and have a chance to contract Potomac Fever, too. Let’s see how long he can remain conservative.

Contact Lionel Waxman at territorial@waxmanmedia.com or visit his website: www.newflashpoint.com. Lionel Waxman’s Flashpoint commentaries are published in The Daily Territorial.