Reid About It

President Bush on Tuesday pardoned fifteen people and commuted the prison service of another.

Now, this is nothing out of the ordinary. Clinton pardoned 456 people, and Reagan 406, so Bush isn't much of a pardoner. What I'm amazed about is the people who are given clemency.

Look at the list of people he took the time to let off the hook. There's a guy in New Jersey who got five years of probation in 1958 for unlawful delay of the mail by a postal employee. A gentleman from Florida made a false statement in 1968 trying to get a Federal Housing Administration loan. And my personal favorites, two guys in Colorado who got three years probation for "selling migratory bird parts in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act."

One-time cads and scofflaws all, I'm sure, but why are these people bothering their elected officials with requests to be absolved from crimes they've already served their time for? I seriously doubt when one of these guys move into a new neighborhood in Colorado, they have to go register on the "Migratory Bird Treaty Act Offenders" list.

Come on, the postal employee has to be in his seventies by now, and he's been in the clear since before JFK died, for crying out loud. Let it go, sir. Once upon a time in the 60's, you were holding out on somebody's "Boy's Life" magazine and got caught. You've done your hard time on probation, and probably haven't so much as swiped a coupon circular since then. We've all forgiven you.

As for the guy in Florida who lied to get a home loan, it was 1968. Chances are, he's been able to save up enough to get a place of his own by now.

What is the rationale for pardoning people who have already served their probations and gone on with their lives? We're not pulling people off of death row with new DNA evidence here, we're just pretending Grandpa didn't get fired from his job as a mailman back before we were all born.