Ooops

Seems that Rudy Giuliani's South Carolina state chairman (the state treasurer, too) has been indicted for buying "less than 500 grams" of cocaine. According to the NYT, Thomas Ravenel, a 44 year-old millionaire and member of one of the state's leading families, intended to "share" the drug with "other people."

At least one early report said that Ravenel had been charged with distributing crack, which would carry a much higher sentence. This bears attention--was the report wrong, or did the US Attorney decide to charge cocaine when crack was involved? Remember that a few years ago, the Supreme Court decided that the disparate penalties between crack and powder cocaine are not discriminatory, even though an overwhelming proportion of defendants charged with crimes involving crack are black.

Oh, by the way, 500 grams is 1.1 pounds, a considerable quantity might be involved

(Mr. Ravenel quickly resigned from Rudy's campaign, and was suspended as state treasurer.)