In 1995, when he was 31, Tim Walz, then a high school football coach and teacher in Alliance, Nebraska, was pulled over by a Nebraska state trooper for driving 96 miles per hour in a 55 m.p.h. zone. There was alcohol on the future Minnesota governor’s and pandemic Nazi’s breath and after Walz failed a field sobriety test and breath test, he was arrested and charged with speeding and driving while intoxicated.
Does it matter? Not the arrest or the drunk driving, in my view, not a single incident so many decades ago. I don’t know anyone who could not have been charged with driving while over the alcohol limit at one point in their lives or another: whether someone gets caught at this frequent violation is largely a matter of moral luck. Tempting fate repeatedly this way—moral luck can also get people killed—and driving while intoxicated when one is in a position of trust and authority is another matter.
By all accounts, Walz was properly accountable and remorseful. He agreed to plead to a reduced charge of reckless driving, a misdemeanor, and paid a $200 fine. He duly reported the incident to his Alliance High School principal, quit his extracurricular activities including the coaching, and offered to resign from his teaching job.
All good. The story just “resurfaced” as they say now, and “Republicans pounced.” I can’t blame them: the tale of George W. Bush’s DUI was held and played by the Democrats as an October Surprise-in-the-hole, and may have cost Bush the popular vote majority in the 2000 Presidential election. Nonetheless, the verdict here is that Walz’s DUI incident itself is irrelevant to his fitness as a potential Vice-President.
This is, however: The arrest first came up in 2006, during Walz’s first campaign for Congress. A Republican political researcher noted it on his blog, but Walz’s campaign immediately claimed that the account was false. The cover story was that the hearing loss that Walz had suffered from serving in the field artillery unit in the National Guard caused him to appear drunk to the trooper. “He couldn’t understand what the officer was saying to him,” Walz’s campaign manager told a reporter for The Rochester Post Bulletin. Deaf people can have balance issues, he added. Why, Walz wasn’t drunk at all!
He was, though. The court record reveals that Walz had a blood alcohol level of 0.128, well over Nebraska’s legal limit of 0.1 at the time (and now it’s 0.08. This means that Walz lied when an embarrassing fact was revealed during a campaign (the campaign manager was his agent and mouthpiece, after all). That, in turn, means that he’s likely to lie now, just as he’s lied about his military service.
I know, I know, it doesn’t matter because Trump lies all the time. Here is how the Daily Beast concluded its report on the incident: “As compared to those two giants of mendacity [Trump and J.D. Vance], Walz is a paragon of honesty.”
Ethics Alarms 
I don’t agree with the DUI assessment. I have never driven drunk. However, it helps that I don’t drink.
I don’t drink more than maybe ten beers and three gin and tonics a year. But once I agreed to drive 8 blocks home in DC after midnight to deliver two house mates who were completely smashed, and I was almost certainly over the limit. I once represented a close friend who was stopped and charged with DUI after she started to drive home TWO blocks after a cast party, and she almost never drank. Meanwhile, my late wife, who battled alcoholism her whole adult life, never was pulled over, not once, even though I eventually was so sure she was intoxicated (but not showing it) behind the wheel so many times that I finally just took her keys away. Pure moral luck.
I have often wondered how people could drink. I look at how many times I am called upon to drive somewhere unexpectedly, at a moments notice. I have wondered when I actually could drink alcohol and not get put into a bind. Add to that the ridiculous interpretations of the drunk-driving laws to include people operating lawn-mowers in their yard while drinking, etc and it is just a legal minefield. My wife occasionally drinks, but only when I am with her and am free to drive if I need to. Also, you can be arrested for misdemeanor DWI for a BAC as low as 0.02 in my state. If you are diabetic, you are halfway there!
I’ve been drunk. And in the army- we used to have battalion functions- and everyone had to breathalyze on their way out the door before the commander would release anyone to drive home. If you failed breathalyzer, the commander called a cab for you.
Well- I know when I’m in no condition to drive. I passed the breathalyzer. I drove not very far pulled over and slept the rest of the night.
Knowing this information- I know that .08 is an incredibly generous leeway granted by authorities for “safe” driving.
(It was an amusing scene to say the least- the battalion event was off post on a Friday evening. The route back to post was densely wooded with the sporadic glade amidst the trees. And everyone knew that the MPs at the gate would be merciless in evaluating drunk drivers.
I wasn’t clearly the only one with the idea that it would be smart to sleep it off on the side of the road.
When dawn broke and the sun woke me and my buddy up- we stretched and got out to relieve ourselves and were surprised by the sound of many vehicle’s engines firing up in the tree line and woods as guys were deciding it was time to go home.)
A DUI tends to display both a lack of self-control and a lack of judgment, though honesty compels me to write that the former often causes the latter, so listing them separately borders on silly. But there it is. “Car and Driver” magazine used to occasionally do drunk driving tests to illustrate the impairment it causes, and they always seemed to come to the same conclusion: a handful of people might be able to somewhat control a vehicle while intoxicated, but the vast majority can’t (and none should try), and therefore it’s one of the stupidest, most dangerous things a person can do.
I think people tend to sympathize with an individual that gets caught over-the-limit once and has to “take that ride.” It’s a shameful thing and, in those cases, people project themselves into the drunk driver’s shoes and many say, “There but for the grace of God go I.”
If an individual like Walz simply admits to the DUI and is contrite, the majority of people won’t give it another thought. Lying about a lack of self-control and a lack of judgment just adds a lack of integrity to the mix.
Tell the truth and you might not be forgiven by a few people…lie about it and most people WON’T forgive you.
I guess it really doesn’t matter, it would only matter if it were the other side. The double standards here are sickening. Still, I think the American Media deserves a salute for being able to take the least popular and competent vice president in a long time and turn her into the second coming of Obama.
The 96mph is equally concerning to me as the DUI. Even sober, that speed is putting other road users at risk. Either way, it shows bad decision-making
My son went to jail for speeding, unimpaired, even faster than that. He had just turned 18. That conviction stopped him from entering the military or seeking a career in law enforcement. He also still can’t vote (in Virginia) and he’s 29 now. In most career pursuits, that incident will shadow him for the rest of his life.
That reminds me that one annoyance I have is the proliferation of felony crimes. In my mind, a felony should be reserved for crimes that are really dangerous to society and probably have an element of malice about them. Administrative, victimless crimes really annoy me when they are elevated to felony status. I really would like to see an amendment to my state constitution that caps the number of felonies that can be on the books at any one time to 50. That would make people really think about what is important.
I think a better idea would be tightening up the definition of what crimes can be felonies.
That’s harsh, but why was he going that fast? I don’t think I’ve done that my entire life, although I’ve been dinged for speeding (twice by the trick where the cop waits just at the edge of town where the speed limit changes (and isn’t necessarily posted obviously) and catches anyone with an out of state plate).
My son? Oh, it didn’t start out that fast: he thought he could cross the border from Virginia into DC, which usually stops police pursuit, but it didn’t work, and then he made the disastrous snap decision to try to elude the cops, hitting about 130 mph at one point. “Eluding” was the felony he pleaded guilty to.
Eluding is a second degree felony in NJ that can draw you 7 to 10 years in prison. I’m guessing it must be similarly rated in VA. I have to say the trying to beat the police across the state line does not usually work. Either they are going to follow you in “hot pursuit” or they are going to radio ahead and have the next jurisdiction waiting for you. Going that fast he’s lucky they didn’t PIT him.