Comparative Commutations

Politicians left and right are falling all over themselves to comment on the President's decision to commute the 30-month sentence of (but not to pardon) Scooter Libby, a sentence he won for perjuring himself and obstructing justice in the case involving Dick Armitage's leaking of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative.

Libby's is just the 4th criminal sentence Bush has commuted, putting his pace at roughly one commutation every 19 months.  With 61 under his belt, Clinton hummed along at a far swifter pace of one commutation every 7 weeks.  Even ignoring his outgoing clemency bonanza, Clinton's non-last day commutations outpaced Bush's 5:1.  But the commutation king of the modern age was John Kennedy, who commuted one sentence for every 10 days he served in office. (CNN data, via Hot Air.)

Similarly, those Presidents' pardon tallies were 113 for Bush (to date), 396 for Clinton (including the bonanza), and 472 for Kennedy (in just over 1,000 days).