SLA OlsonThere’s been a lot of ridiculous rhetoric spewed regarding Sara Jane Olson — the former Symbionese Liberation Army member who just finished serving a seven year prison sentence. No matter your thoughts on her crimes, the fact that she’ll serve her parole in Minnesota is simply routine bureaucratic procedure. No amount of chest-puffing on the part of politicians and pundits will make it otherwise.

In today’s Pioneer Press, Ruben Rosario has a terrific column cutting through all the nauseous grandstanding. The metro columnist brings up the rather unlikely parallel of Stanley Dean Baker, a.k.a. “Fingers,” a convicted murderer and alleged cannibal who served out his post-incarceration life in Minnesota without bothering a soul. Rosario also gives a pass to the police unions for beating on the Olson pinata, but performs a nifty double-leg rhetorical takedown on the state’s top elected official. Read the whole thing, but here are a few choice grafs related to T-Paw:

There are an estimated 1,591 convicted offenders from other states — from burglars to convicted killers — currently allowed to live here.

We’ve exported 2,518 of our own across the nation. We’re talking everything here from property burglars to murderers. Where are those other letters of protest?

Gov. Tim Pawlenty knows the score about this long-standing interstate agreement. But lightweight politicians don’t let the facts get in the way of scoring easy, knee-jerk political points.

Basically, the Governator from the Golden State told Pawlenty, ‘Sorry, but hasta la vista, baby.’ Olson was released Tuesday and will return to Minnesota under parole to live with her husband and three children.

Rosario has been hitting on all cylinders lately. His weekend column about Annie Yonly — a Liberian immigrant who’s lived in Minnesota for more than two decades, but now faces possible deportation — was devastating.