TalkLeft calls Bush’s Christmas pardons “puny.”

They’re right. But what did you expect? Bush’s first two terms have been about as risk-averse as one could possibly have imagined. I can’t think of single bold decision he’s made — to my liking or otherwise — since taking office. Every stroke of the pen has been Roverized and compromised so that it plays well in Peoria.

There’s nothing more politically volatile than a pardon gone wrong. Just ask Bush’s predecessor. Your humble Agitator would like to see Bush throw a pardon Leonard Pelletier’s way — if not for reasons of justice, than for outreach and public relations (not to mention that it would seriously piss off the FBI — always a good thing).

But I’m not holding my breath.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 29th, 2002 at 2:45 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.