By Rosalie Tirella

It’s one of those weird wonders … Frank Beshai, a good guy AND ex-con in recovery, may be running for Sheriff of Worcester County – again. (We interviewed him in 2004 and endorsed him in his run for sheriff. Back then, we were newer at the game, and Beshai’s talk of seeing the Big House with an insider’s perspective, intrigued us.)

Maybe we have grown wiser … . Don’t get me wrong. I love “Heat of the Night” with Rod Steiger as the old timey sheriff sporting cool aviator glasses and crumby Southern-style hangups.

Frank Beshai would be more at home in “Heat of the Night” than in the Worcester County House of Correction. Beshai would make a great TV/movie sheriff.

But this is 2010 and we’d like to think of Worcester County as a fairly progressive place. A place where we need ideas, experience and … electability. Frank Beshai – during an Oct. 2010 InCity Times interview for his run for the District 3 City Councilor seat – seemed a little … out of it. Weird. A tad creepy. He was just, I don’t know, out to lunch … or out of ideas. Just pushing a turn-the-bums- (read: incumbents)-out ethos.

While it’s OK to be a protest candidate, it is not OK to seem ancient, exhausted, grasping for ideas to hang your brain on … . This is the Frank Beshai of 2010.

While it is nice to know Beshai turned his life around, a “reborn” guy does not make a great sheriff. Beshai should give up politics (he’s been trying to get elected to anything for years) and maybe start a rehab program for ex-offenders, with a Christian twist.

This is probably Frank’s destiny.

Pray on it, Frank.