Coddling Criminals

Coddling Criminals

In light of the president's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence, I wanted to quote briefly from an AP story about the administration's latest crime-fighting initiative, dated June 17:

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is trying to roll back a Supreme Court decision by pushing legislation that would require prison time for nearly all criminals.

The Justice Department is offering the plan as an opening salvo in a larger debate about whether sentences for crack cocaine are unfairly harsh and racially discriminatory.

Republicans are seizing the administration's crackdown, packaged in legislation to combat violent crime, as a campaign issue for 2008.

As Republicans like to say in defense of the mindless, "tough" sentencing policies that have represented virtually their only criminal justice strategy in recent decades: "You do the crime, you do the time." But I guess that depends on who you are.