“Delahunt, Rohrabacher and Poe earlier sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 267 asking the House to petition President Bush to grant clemency in the case. It now has 37 Democrats and several dozen Republicans as sponsors.”
So much effort, press conferences, hundreds of letters, House Resolutions, media appearances, rallies, photos...and not one second to write and submit legislation that corrects and redefines 18 U.S.C. 924(c) to get Ramos and Compean out of jail and home with their families for Christmas.
The corrective legislation could have been made retroactive to cover R&C. Concern for R&C cuts across both parties so their would have been trouble putting this on the fast track.
It could have been done by now. It seems this is the quickest and easiest way to accomplish the goal, but it hasn’t even been considered much less proposed.
Anyone care to wonder why?
It seems all this effort for Ramos and Compean should be redirected to getting Hunter, Poe and Feinstein to actually make something happen which they can control and see completed. But I doubt it will...fancy press releases, media ops and headline catching sound bites are much more productive politically than the tedious and unheralded work of passing legislation and it is far easier to just blame Bush.
“would have been trouble”
...shoulf have read “would have been NO trouble
This issue has drawn quite a bit of attention, particularly here on FR. There must be a hundred articles posted on it in the last year and threads go on for hundreds of posts. The pardon advocates are very vocal. They’ve organized or attended rallies, initiated letter writing campaigns, calls to congressional office, legal donation drives.
But not one of them has pressed for legislation either. Even though this legislation would effectively exonerate R&C the 10 year mandatory charge, set them free and have them “home with their families”.
Care to wonder why?
I’ll take a stab. Because that would end this issue and nobody wants that, really. Why kill off the golden media goose when it is so productive?
The politicians don’t want it to end, it is bringing so many supporters, votes and donations.
The border security people don’t want it ended, that would take it of the front pages.
The “one world order” people don’t want it to end, it gives them an ax on which to grind and gives them legitimacy they don’t often see, even around FR.
The “I hate Bush” crowd doesn’t want to see it end, it has been so productive in convincing people of some evil conspiracy involving Mexico.
A lot of people on FR have been snookered. The sincere out there might want to start asking the self appointed FR leaders of this scam...
“Why have there been no efforts from you to pass legislation to quickly get R&C out of prison? Why don't we refocus our efforts in this direction instead of banging our heads away on the heretofor unproductive "pardon" efforts? ”
Why write legislation if the issue is resolved in the appeal? I believe they are waiting until that point. The court has already suggested that the flaw is not in the law but in the misdirected acts of Johnny Sutton's office in bringing the charges in the first place. You don't have to rebuild a car when you encounter an incompetent driver. We shouldn't have to write new laws to prevent the incompetent (or vindictive) acts of the U.S. Attorney's office.
However, if the issue does not resolve itself in the appeal, I have no doubt that new legislation will be forthcoming. The Senate has already heard testimony on these issues in special hearings to enable them to act quickly.
Thereafter, action should be taken to remove Sutton from office.
#78 Revising 18 U.S.C. 924(c) won’t get Ramos and Compean out of jail a day sooner than an Apellate reversal or Presidential Pardon would...Fact is Johnny Sutton deliberately misrepresented that section of the Code to the Judge as ‘proof’ that a crime was committed when that particular section only applies to the Penalty phase once a crime has been committed..The Judge never caught it and apparently did not check the Code herself before handing down her decision..Bush needs to do the right thing and grant them a full Pardon, then let them sue Sutton if they can..or the Apellate Court needs to make a reversal ruling post-haste imho...