ANOTHER PARDON THAT STINKS

Clinton Pardoned A Well-connected Cocaine Kingpin -- While Letting
Countless Low-level, Mostly Black And Latino, Dealers Rot In Prison.

In November, former President Clinton told Rolling Stone magazine that many
drug sentences are too long and that U.S. policy needs to be reexamined.
His words seemed to be an official signal, long awaited by many, that the
nation's drug laws desperately need an overhaul.

Drug reform groups made a frantic stampede to submit to the president the
names of hundreds of petty drug dealers serving long stretches in federal
prisons under crushing mandatory-minimum drug sentences. Those sentences
were set in granite by Congress a decade ago and judges have no control
over them; only a presidential pardon can undo them.

Clinton denied nearly all the requests for clemency. One of the few he
didn't deny was the request to release one Carlos Vignali. According to
federal prosecutors and police investigators, Vignali was the kingpin in a
lucrative drug ring that shipped hundreds of pounds of cocaine from Los
Angeles to Minnesota. He was sentenced to 15 years.

It was more than luck or Clinton compassion that sprung Vignali after he
had served six years. His rich daddy, an Argentinian immigrant named
Horacio Vignali, dumped tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign
coffers of some of California's top politicians. Two of them -- the former
speaker of the California assembly, Antonio Villaraigosa, and Rep. Xavier
Becerra -- are leading contenders in Los Angeles' upcoming mayoral election.

Both wrote letters and made phone calls asking the White House to consider
clemency for Vignali. Their action expose two troubling problems. One is
the corrosive influence of money in politics. The other is the racially
warped, deeply flawed drug war.

Most drug dealers are poor blacks or Latinos, hustling petty deals on the
street. Not Vignali. According to federal prosecutors and police
investigators, he owned a pricey condo in an upscale L.A. neighborhood, and
unloaded thousands at the gambling tables in Las Vegas. He was the center
of a lucrative Minnesota-to-L.A. cocaine drug ring.

Was this the type of drug dealer that Clinton had in mind when he publicly
lambasted draconian drug sentences?

According to reports by the Justice Department, and the U.S. Sentencing
Commission:

- -- The overwhelming majority of those prosecuted in federal courts for drug
possession and sale (mostly small amounts of crack cocaine) and given stiff
mandatory sentences of 10 years to life are blacks and Latinos.

- -- Only a small percentage of those sentenced to prison terms are major
dealers.

- -- There is a massive and deep disparity in how blacks (who tend to use
crack cocaine) and whites (who tend to use powdered cocaine) are sentenced
by federal and state courts.

Currently, more than 2 million inmates pack America's prisons. One million
of them are black. A growing number of them were convicted of mostly
nonviolent drug crimes. They received stiff sentences under the federal
mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws.

Clinton's drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who mightily defended the
administration's policy throughout most of his tenure, shifted gears in the
last year, calling the mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders bad
policy and bad law enforcement.

Clinton and former Attorney General Janet Reno initially backed these laws.
After facing fierce pressure from black leaders and civil liberties groups,
they gave tepid and much belated support to amending the laws to eliminate
the gaping racial disparities. Congress refused to budge, however, and
Clinton did not use his executive power to push the issue while he had the
chance.

According to federal prosecutors, there were 30 co-defendants in Vignali's
drug ring. Many of them were poor, black and much smaller-scale than he
was. They were convicted and got maximum sentences under the federal
mandatory minimum law. There is little chance any of them will get top
politicians to send letters and make phone calls to the White House on
their behalf.

Do wealthy political donors routinely expect to get favors for their money?
They do. And when those favors are delivered, it confirms public belief
that politics is hopelessly soiled by big money, that politicians can be
bought and sold. This drives voters from the polls in disgust.

Such favors also fuel public demand for real campaign finance reform. But
with the exception of a handful of flawed ballot propositions in California
to limit campaign contributions, a bill by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to
eradicate soft money contributions and an anemic reform law by California
legislators, politicians duck for cover, or figure out ways to water down
campaign reform every time.

While Clinton is being pressed to explain the suspect pardon of convicted
tax evader and commodities broker Marc Rich, California's top politicians
should also be pressed to tell why they lobbied so hard for Vignali's
release -- and whether they would do the same for those who don't
contribute big money to their campaigns.