Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” apparently doesn’t extend much to the issue of presidential pardons. The White House announced a new round of pardons yesterday, which is common at the end of the year, but it’s a fairly short list and the president is still on track to be one of the stingiest in American history.
President Bush issued 16 pardons to minor criminals yesterday and commuted the sentence of an Iowa man serving time for a drug conviction.
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.
Seven of the 16 received no prison or jail time, but received probation or small fines. The longest sentence was nine years, for aiding cocaine distribution, followed by a six-year term for conspiracy to possess marijuana.
Including these cases, Bush has issued 113 pardons and commuted three sentences in his nearly six years in the White House, according to spokesman Tony Fratto.
No, Scooter Libby isn’t on the list.
With 113 pardons over six years, Bush is on pace to be the stingiest two-term president in over 200 years. Among Bush’s more recent predecessors, Clinton, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, and Kennedy had several hundred pardons each, while Eisenhower was among the most charitable, with 1,157 pardons over his two terms. H.W. Bush was less generous, and his 77 pardons during his one term — including, not incidentally, Christmas Eve pardons for Reagan-era officials who could have implicated him in the Iran-Contra scandal — gives him a similar per-year average to his son.
Given Bush’s Texas record, this shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise. As governor, Bush not only executed Texans at a record clip; he signed only 18 clemency grants, making him the stingiest Texas governor in recent memory. (This isn’t a partisan matter; the last Republican to hold the office before Bush, Bill Clements, used the power 822 times — or about 46 clemencies for every one of Bush’s.)
At this point, the cushiest job in Washington has to be the deputy attorney general at the Justice Department who reviews the files in the pardon office.