Boston Globe Online / City & Region / Bulger set to resign today

Impression: It's about time. There's a certain type of admirable "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" characteristic that sometimes emerges when an unfair scandal threatens to engulf a goodly public servant. Seeing that individual hang in there through to the end and emerge, victorious and vindicated, out the other side can itself be an object lesson in good leadership.

Mr. Bulger is no Mr. Smith. There is something about the issue surrounding Bulger that his struggle threatens to enoble - the protection of his mass-murdering brother - that takes all the riteousness right out of the fight. The nature and basis of the battle has made it far more proper that Mr. Bulger should have done the right thing long ago, and not tried to make himself more important than the institution he leads.

Au revoir, mon amis.