An Outrage

Now that former South Dakota governor Bill Janklow is out of prison for manslaughter, several of his confidential records from his governorship have been made available to the public.

The pardons made public on Thursday include Janklow's 2002 pardon of William Gordon Haugen II, the husband of Janklow's daughter, Shonna. The pardon covered drunken driving convictions in 1983 and in 1997, and a 1993 conviction for marijuana possession.

Now, why is this such an outrage? Why should it matter that the son-in-law of a prominent Republican politician should be allowed to walk away, recrimination free, from his legally soiled past? Listen to Janklow's defense of this action:

"My son-in-law did things when he was a younger person that he paid for," Janklow told the Associated Press. "He came to me and asked if I would clean things up because he wanted to go to law school. I said, 'Is this all behind you?' and he said, 'So help me, God, it's behind me.' I said, 'Are you ever going to embarrass me or anybody else?' He said, 'Never,' and so I did it, and he's just finished his first year in law school and is a very good student."

Which is to say, yet again - Sorry is never good enough - unless you happen to be a sorry, white, well-connected Republican. Mr. Haugen is eligible for financial aid in law school that he would have otherwise been denied. He can vote in seven states that would have disenfranchised him. The tighter we draw the law, and make no mistake - we have been tightening it, the more arbitrary we make its operations, as those who control the levers of law blanche at seeing it applied to themselves and their own...