Charged with shoplifting, Lincoln prez library head on leave

A story like this can only come out of Illinois. With great fanfare, and great taxpayer funded expense, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum opened in Springfield in 2005.

One of Lincoln's best-known monikers is "Honest Abe."

But the museum's director, Richard E. Beard, appears to be less than honest; he was arrested for shoplifting in August. He allegedly took a liking to a DVD box set of the television show "House" at a Target store that he didn't pay for. In Lincoln's time, they called that shoplifting. Earlier this week, Beard, who makes $150,000 a year, was placed on paid-administrative leave.

Springfield has a low cost of living. Forget "House," in Illinois' state capital you can buy a nice house for $150,000.

Beard has two previous Springfield shoplifting arrests on his curriculum vitae. Last year he was caught stealing neckties from a Macy's, as well as a "Seinfeld" DVD box set from the same Target where he arrested in August.

Although I'm not a lawyer, or a mental health professional, I have some advice for Beard. Plead insanity. Say the spirit of Governor George H. Ryan, who is now imprisoned in Indiana, has possessed him. The Kankakee Republican laid the cornerstone of Honest Abe's library in 2002.

And when the museum opened three years later, his successor, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, spoke at the official dedication.

Blagojevich is now under federal investigation for his role in Illinois' "pay to play" scandals.

What would Lincoln think?

Related posts:

Thirty hours in Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois
Abraham Lincoln birthplace site
Abraham Lincoln birthplace site's log cabin
"My earliest recollection is of the Knob Creek place"
I found this bit of history in downtown Chicago today
Book review: Andrew Ferguson's "Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America"
My Mississippi Manifest Destiny--Lincoln and Kentucky
Stephen A. Douglas Tomb in Chicago
My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Jonesboro, site of the third Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Technorati tags: Abraham Lincoln history Illinois Blagojevich Springfield Democrats crime shoplifting George Ryan Republicans