HE'S IN LABOR'S POCKET!:

Bush pardons W.Va. coal mine bomber: President grants clemency to 14 (Associated Press, October 2, 2005)

President Bush granted pardons last week to 14 people, including a counterfeiter, a bootlegger, and a member of the mineworkers union convicted for his role in bombings at a West Virginia coal mine.

Jesse Ray Harvey of Scarbro, W.Va., was given a 25-month sentence in 1990 after his conviction for using explosives to damage Milburn Colliery. The mine had been the target of a long strike by about 45 members of a United Mine Workers local.

Bush has issued 60 pardons and sentence commutations during 56 months in office.

His father, former president George H.W. Bush, issued 77 pardons during his single term, from 1989 to 1993, according to statistics collected by the University of Pittsburgh law school. President Clinton granted clemency to 456 people during his eight years in office, including 176 on his last day in the White House.

Some pardons, like the one President Ford gave Richard M. Nixon in 1974, protect recipients from going to jail or reduce their sentences. But Bush has granted clemency mainly to allow people who committed relatively minor offenses and served their sentences long ago to clear their names.

Just because Bill Clinton abused the pardon power doesn't mean it shouldn't continue to be used judiciously. He abused the Oval Office floor but we kept that.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 3, 2005 9:55 AM