June 10, 2007
By MARGARET COLGATE LOVE
...For example, excessive harshness (which is one of Libby's complaints) is a time-honored reason for reducing a prison sentence. Carter commuted the sentence of heiress Patty Hearst, Reagan did the same for former Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel, and President Bill Clinton cut short the prison terms of a group of Puerto Rican nationalists, all because they considered these prisoners' sentences disproportionate to their crimes. If Bush begins now to exercise his pardon power with more intention and greater liberality, with more sympathy for human error and less aversion to controversy, there is at least a chance that the public will regard with equanimity any relief he ultimately chooses to grant to Scooter Libby.
