DUI: Crime and punishment

Inter Lake editorial

The closely watched case of a drunk driver who killed two young Flathead Valley men reached its court conclusion this week.

Daniel Resler received a 10-year sentence (40 years with 30 suspended) to the Montana Department of Corrections for the deaths of 19-year-old Brad Michael Williams of Somers and 16-year-old Kyle David McCullugh of Kalispell.

And District Judge Kim Christopher recommended that Resler serve at least 13 months of his sentence in Montana State Prison.

That's not all: Resler will be under court supervision until he is 73 years old, he faces a variety of restrictions and he has to perform community service.

That sentence is much more stringent than one that was part of a plea agreement that Judge Christopher threw out in issuing her sentence.

The case produced a huge outpouring of public interest, generating more than 300 reader comments on the Inter Lake's Web site. Many of those comments expressed outrage over the proposed initial sentence.

Resler's punishment won't erase the pain felt by families and friends of Williams or McCullugh and it may not satisfy some people for whom anything less than a life sentence is not tough enough.

But it's a reasonable conclusion to a tragic case.

It's amazing to see that Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be the headliners at Montana Democratic Party's annual Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner in Butte April 5.

The two are vying for their party's presidential nomination and for once, it appears that Montana's June primary election is important enough to lure presidential candidates to the state. Butte seems an ideal location with its reputation as a blue-collar town and long-time Democratic stronghold, and the event is expected to be attended by 4,000 people.

The state party is declaring Butte will be "the center of the political world." Well that may be a stretch, but the event is surely historical, mainly because Montana's late "presidential preference" primary election just hasn't been worth much in past presidential races.

This could prompt many Montanans to support an earlier primary election in the future. After all, it wouldn't take much to get used to having a real voice in presidential politics.