But why this S&L executive and not others? Just as Bush went to the head of the line when he enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard, certain people are handed “get out of jail” cards before others. Brian McCall is a Republican state rep from Plano who worked with Bush in the Texas Legislature. His brother is the name partner in a Plano law firm. Florence Shapiro, who called on the White House to ask for the pardon, is a former mayor of Plano who now serves in the Texas Senate. And is a protégé of Bush political adviser Karl Rove.

The real story here is not who gets pardoned, but who doesn’t. Bush is a notorious hard-ass on crime. He defeated Texas Governor Ann Richards in 1994 by promising to crack down on rising crime in Texas at a time crime was declining. His second campaign used adolescents in one of his new tough-love juvenile prisons as props in his TV spots. He presided over the execution of 152 people in one of the most flawed criminal-justice systems in the nation. And in a Talk magazine interview with Tucker Carlson he mocked Karla Fay Tucker’s pleading for clemency (not a pardon) several days before he signed her death warrant. (“‘Please,’ Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, ‘don’t kill me.’”)