Eleventh-hour presidential pardons are the kind of Oval Office act about which the figure doing the acting generally doesn't feel any compulsion to comment. Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, for instance and then pretty much went mum.
Such seems to be the case with the Most Equal Comrade's commutation of the sentence of "Chelsea" Manning, who will walk out of Leavenworth in May.
This one will be parsed by historians for decades to come.
It has one MEC administration official, SecDef Ashton Carter, angered, as well as a prominent Dem senator, Robert Menendez.
Is this merely of a piece with other MEC interim-period moves, such as putting Arctic oil fields off-limits and ramping up coal-industry regs, in which he just lets 'er rip, almost eager to show his true colors as never before? Or is there some behind-the-scenes explanation that won't become clear for years due to strategic considerations?
I'm betting on the former.
UPDATE: The MEC's commutation of the sentence of FALN terrorist Oscar Lopez-Rivera would seem to bolster my inclination.
Bad and wrong on Manning. More a nod to the whatever they call themselves now community. It's a gay day in the miltaray Iray, Iray, Iray. Didja see the coke dealers whose sentences were commuted or reduced in Indy too? Conditioned upon drug rehab. Ain't it fab?
ReplyDeleteMore than 100 of the sentences Obama commuted Tuesday were for crimes involving cocaine, a major factor in the disproportionate number of black men serving time in federal prisons.
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Interesting, I guess. Maybe their rehab will take and all will be well.
ReplyDeleteRonnie spearheaded the mandatory minimum movement. He also ramped-up property seizures. You know cops are giving commissions to snitches--a percentage of the take. That's real freedom, ain't it bippy?
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