Step Down, Bill Janklow

It`s all a big joke to
Rep. Bill Janklow, the Republican congressman from South
Dakota with a lead foot, a hollow heart, and an ego the
size of his Cadillac death-mobile.

Conservatives with a
conscience should be appalled that the powerful GOP
representative, charged over the weekend with felony
manslaughter in a fatal accident that killed a
motorcyclist last month, refuses to step down
immediately from office.

For years, this man who
belongs to the party of personal responsibility—the
party of law and order—has made light of his
law-skirting ways. A notorious speeder, he jested in his

State of the State address while governor of South
Dakota in 1996: "For the first time since I can
remember, I went a whole year without a speeding ticket,
and so then the federal government goes ahead and
abolishes speed limits." In his 1999 State of the
State address, the governor (and former state attorney
general) poked fun at his scofflaw reputation again:
`Bill Janklow speeds when he drives. Shouldn`t, but he
does.`"

Hardy-har-har.
According to the Associated Press:

“His driving record shows numerous citations from the
early 1990s, when he was ticketed 12 times for speeding
and paid more than $1,000 in fines. In several cases, he
was stopped for driving 15 to 20 miles per hour faster
than the posted speed limits and once was caught going
90 mph in a 65-mph zone.”

He has
reportedly been involved in at least eight accidents
over the past 10 years.

Last
December, according to Jennifer Walters of Trent, S.D.,
Janklow ran a stop sign and nearly collided with her
family`s pickup truck at a rural intersection. "A
split-second difference and the Cadillac would have hit
us," Walters (who was riding with her husband and
two children) told the Minneapolis Star Tribune
last week. "That`s how fast the car came through."
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required]

Eight months
later, Janklow ran the

same stop sign at the very same intersection—and
Randolph Scott was not so lucky.

Scott was riding his
Harley-Davidson safely at a legal speed on Aug. 16. The
55-year-old Vietnam veteran, volunteer firefighter,
farmer, and father of two didn`t have a chance as
Janklow came barreling through the intersection at a
reported 70 miles an hour. Scott was killed instantly.
Friends remembered him as a big, outgoing guy who knew
everyone in his small town of Hardwick, Minnesota. He
headed the local American Legion post. “He was always
there for you,” a former schoolmate recalled. He “liked
hamburger steaks,” another friend said.

The imperial Janklow has
expressed remorse for the death of citizen Randolph
Scott. Remorse, but not shame. Janklow`s son

told the New York Times on Sunday that
his father “plans to go back to Washington and resume
his Congressional duties…He has no intention of
resigning."

Janklow, considered a
potential candidate against Democrat minority leader
Sen. Tom Daschle, is clinging pathetically to his
political ambitions. Meanwhile, Republican strategists
are worried about losing South Dakota`s only
congressional seat to a Democrat.

Politics be damned.
Janklow is a repugnant lawbreaker addicted to speed and
power. His callous disregard for the rules cost an
innocent man his life. The Republican Party should turn
its back on Janklow and bear the electoral consequences.

Last year`s

Trent Lott episode showed that the GOP can hold its
leaders to higher standards. Party officials once again
have an opportunity to show that personal accountability
is more than a catch phrase.

The Democrats have their

Chappaquiddick. Republicans don`t need one, too.

Michelle Malkin [email
her] is author of

Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists,
Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores.
Click

here for Peter Brimelow`s review. Click

here for Michelle Malkin`s website.

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