Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Hey, Mitt.... Tell Us the Whole Truth

FactCheck.org Adds Perspective to the Claims of Mitt Romney's Attack on Governor Huckabee.

It is instructive to consider whose best interests a Governor has in mind when considering commutations. Clearly the law gives the Governor the responsibility to consider the applications and to make those decisions. It will never benefit a Governor politically to grant pardons or commutations, but it may be in the best interest of justice and/or the people of the state.

While Gov. Huckabee granted just over 10% of the more than 8700 requests brought him in ten and half years in Arkansas, Gov. Romney granted zero of the 100 requests brought before him in his four years in Massachusetts. Google the news for a Bronze Star recipient named Lt. Anthony Circosta (from Agawam, MA) to learn of a particularly offensive refusal. When a decorated Army officer is prevented from becoming police officer because of a refusal to pardon a conviction from a BB-gun incident (that drew no blood!) incurred at age thirteen, it seems to be clear that Gov. Romney is most concerned about Gov. Romney's political future. In Circosta's case, Romney ignored the recommendation of state's Board of Pardons.

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