It's a sad day for the City of Brotherly Love when pigmentation is poised to pick a prosecutor, but that scenario is quite possible.
Thanks mainly to the color of his skin, Philadelphia attorney Alexander Talmadge has a good chance of winning the Democratic nomination for district attorney in the May 15 primary election.
Indubitably, Talmadge is in the race at the behest of local NAACP leader Jerry Mondesire, who believes in the Theory of ABA -- Anybody But Abraham.
Jerry's main problem with Lynne Abraham is that she had the audacity three years ago to successfully block the nomination of a black woman, Frederica Massiah-Jackson, to a federal judgeship because Massiah-Jackson, a Common Pleas Court judge, was allegedly biased against prosecutors and law-enforcement officers.
Now, Jerry apparently wants to punish Abraham by denying her bid for re-election. Jerry's reasoning is flawed, however.
Alex Talmadge is a nice man -- a gentleman, to be sure -- but he has political baggage. He doesn't even come close to measuring up to Abraham in the qualifications department.
Here are his drawbacks:
1. His experience as a prosecutor is zilch.
2. He was chastised by a federal judge for his role as a city elections commissioner in the 1993 absentee-ballot scandal in the 2nd Senatorial District.
3. He is backed by Jerry Mondesire.
If Talmadge prevails in the primary, it will spell the beginning of the end of the line for Lynne Abraham. For the citizens of Philadelphia, that would be a shame, a veritable travesty of justice.
Abraham, who was dubbed a "tough cookie" by the late, great Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, has been impervious to skin color in her decade as DA.
Race plays no part in how she administers justice. It was also irrelevant in her years as a judge in Municipal Court and Common Pleas Court.
In contrast, Talmadge is running for district attorney for one reason, and one reason only: He is black.
Jerry Mondesire is making the race for DA a matter of race.
Northeast Philadelphia, please don't let him get away with it.