Disclaimer: I'm 23 years old. That limits my political perspective somewhat. While I've studied history, practically all recent presidents are just that to me. My political interests are fairly recent. I started to pay attention during Bill, but it didn't really start developing until 2000. '04 I actually did research on the canidates. I'm not hugely interested in comparisons with previous presidents, because shamefully enough, those previous presidents were boring talking heads at the time, at most a dirty joke or two.
While listening to talk radio I've heard a lot of opinions on commutation versus pardons, and a lot of misinformation. I haven't figured out what the bare facts of the matter are yet, I'll probably do that tomorrow, and then throw myself fully into the fray with a heavily biased opinion.
Atrocities, it is worth it to point out that Edi hasn't used the word pardon even once yet, though you might find something like that reading between the lines, intended or not, there or not. The reason I point this out that the American populace are used to criminal pardons, and for that fact, commutations on sentences. But we're primarily used that happening on the last day in office, not all the way before an election year, not before the person's served any time, and not for a member of their own administration (I could very well be far off the mark in that very last comment, read disclaimer).
Look at the long list of Clinton's commutations.
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/pardons6b.htm
These people had at least served time, the least of which is one year. Some over a decade. Libby served less than Paris Hilton - even before she got sent back.
Hmmm... this passage shows me I need to do further research.
"How many pardons did President Clinton give during his two terms?
In total, President Clinton issued 456 executive clemency orders - 395 pardons and 61 commutations - between 1993 and January 20, 2001. The vast majority were issued in the last three years of his presidency - 176 (140 pardons, 36 commutations) were issued on his last day in office. "
Anyways, point is, this is an unusually high profile case, and Bush has been pretty light on the pardons to date. 76, most around two decades old, not just fresh off the appeal. Much as I know wikipedia's not a reliable source, I'll link them for quickness' sake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...George_W._Bush
This is the fourth such commutation he's done. And its quite exceptional to have a sentenced commuted before a day's been served. There have been past scandals around the presidental pardon - and this one might not be that unique (I don't know yet, but I'm looking) - but it still is scandalous.