Real Compassion.

Governor Vilsack of Iowa, a moderate Democrat, showed the kind of compassionate conservatism that many of George W. Bush's non-Texas supporters had hoped for when he ran for office the first time, by restoring the civil rights of all released felons in the state with his pardon power. We want to draw ex-cons back into legitimate society, not force them out of it by preventing them from voting. The courts upheld this exercise of his pardon power.