Pardons.

Bush issued 14 new pardons this week. All involved people who already had been convicted and served their time, often decades ago. As usual, the President didn't even attempt to provide any meaningful justification for his actions.

Only a handful of people in his Presidency have actually had their sentences commuted.

We would be better off if every one with a clean slate for ten or twenty years received a clean slate, than relying on the seemingly random pardon process to rehabilitate people who have already served their time.

It is also notable that:

Perhaps most significant for your audience, there is no indication that this president plans to use his pardon power in any systematic fashion to cut short prison sentences: the beneficiaries of his only two commutations were both old and sick and within six months of release in the ordinary course.

For a "Compassionate Conservative", our President doesn't seem to understand mercy very well.