A Good Man Falls Hard

It was a weird, sad exit for an honorable public servant. British Home Secretary David Blunkett, the country's chief law-enforcement officer, had no choice but to resign when an inquiry unearthed an e-mail and fax showing his office had helped speed up a residency permit for his ex-lover's nanny. The offense was tiny — the nanny was entitled to the permit anyway — but Blunkett had insisted there had been no intervention at all. (He later said he had forgotten the e-mail and fax.) Several missteps had steered him toward this patch of political quicksand. The public seemed willing to forgive...