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More proof politicians are very compassionate toward criminals ... who are fellow politicians

By Douglas A. Berman

I am hoping readers might help me come up with a catchy word or phrase to describe the all-too-common phenomenon of "tough-on-crime" politicians becoming amazingly sympathetic to convicted felons who are fellow politicians.  I would have liked to had such a term for President Bush, who showed his soft side when he commuted the sentence of his pal Scooter Libby, despite the fact that he has not shown any similar compassion toward thousands of other first offenders sentenced to prison for crimes arguably less serious than Libby's (such as Victor Rita and others noted in this post).  And such a term now is needed to describe a number of prominent Senators who are seeking compassion for other prominent federal offenders. First, consider the compassion now being expressed by Senator Orrin Hatch and other Republicans in this new Politico piece asking "Will Bush pardon Stevens?...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 02, 2008 (boomark / email).