Should presidents pardon law breakers in their own administration?

Well there has been a lot of precedent for this to occur. Pretty much all of the watergate offenders were let go or had their sentences commuted. That being said I think that they should have to do some time. Otherwise what is the point of them being convicted. I never could understand why people like Liddy and Ollie North are so loved by people after they were implicated in their respective scandals. It almost as if people like them more for their actions/crimes then they do for anything else.