Party Favors: Arnold Commutes Sentence of Murderous Liberal

I thought actors had some by word about "always leave 'em cheering." Well, the Governator has leaving office today to the sound of booing, not just due to the incredible disappointment and fiscal chaos he leaves in his wake, but also that bugaboo of moderate politicians*: the commutation. Ah-nuld exercised his prerogative as governor by commuting the prison sentence of Esteban Nunez. Who's Estaban Nunez? Oh, nobody, just the son of the the speaker of the Assembly

In the waning hours of his term, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger commuted the prison sentence Sunday of the son of a political ally, former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, in connection with the fatal stabbing of a college student from Concord.

Schwarzenegger reduced Esteban Núñez's sentence from 16 years to seven years, calling it excessive because the young man - who pleaded guilty to charges including voluntary manslaughter - did not personally stab the victim and had no prior criminal record.

Schwarzenegger reduced two other prisoners' sentences and pardoned eight others.

Esteban Núñez, 22, is in state prison for his involvement in the 2008 killing of Luis Dos Santos, a 22-year-old student at Mesa College in San Diego. During a fight near a San Diego State University fraternity, a friend of Núñez allegedly stabbed Santos in the chest. Núñez admitted to stabbing another man during the fight, although that man survived.

Núñez, who was initially charged with murder, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in a deal with prosecutors and received the maximum sentence. Schwarzenegger called the sentence disproportionate, considering that the alleged stabber was also given 16 years.

Núñez's father, a Democrat, served two terms as speaker of the Assembly, from 2004 to 2008. Though he initially sparred with Schwarzenegger, the two ultimately became close and struck deals on bills to increase the minimum wage and curb greenhouse gases.

Jesus Christ on a hat rack, now we have the "Republican" (I use that term very loosely) governor granting commutations to the relatives of leading state progressives? Let Jerry Brown do that crap!

More important, did you even know that Fabian Nunez had a son who was sentenced to prison for a fatal stabbing that occurred while dad was in office? Yeah, I know it was reported, but not with the sort of gusto that, say, the underage drinking of the Bush twins received. Despite its troubles, California remains the eighth or ninth largest economy in the world. Wouldn't the speaker of the legislature for France or Germany have received a bit more publicity if his son took part in a fatal stabbing?

Esteban Nunez benefited doubly in all this: first through the special media cloaking device which protects the family members of liberals in good standing from the wide-spread dissemination of their foibles, and then second through a political pardon granted by "dad's" political partner. And he still participated in a murder and went to prison.

More here from Michelle Malkin

*at least conservative politicians don't get all weepy over some thug sitting in prison.