Don't Beg His Pardon

Dubya showed mercy to 16 convicts yesterday and commuted the sentence of someone convicted of a drug offense. As noted here…

Six of the federal offenses were drug crimes, while others included bank fraud, mail fraud, the acceptance of a kickback, a false statement on a loan application and conspiracy to defraud the government over taxes.

I guess I would be just some impudent liberal blogger if I speculated as to whether or not Dubya felt as if these people were kindred spirits based on his own past behavior (I know, so much snark, so little time…).

As the CNN/AP story also noted…

Bush remains among the stingiest of postwar presidents on pardons.

President Clinton issued 457 in eight years in office. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, issued 77 in four years. President Reagan issued 406 in eight years, and President Carter issued 563 in four years.

Since World War II, the largest number of pardon and commutations -- 2,031 -- came from President Truman, who served 82 days short of eight years.

And with that, I should note that my blogging until the end of the year will now be highly sporadic (there are a couple of “must” posts coming up, but everything else is up for grabs).