The Politico
When he was 13 years old, Anthony Circosta shot another kid in the arm with a BB gun, and, even though Circosta's shot did not break the kid's skin, Circosta was convicted of assault.
Which did not matter much as Circosta worked his way through college, joined the Army National Guard, went to Iraq and led a platoon of soldiers in the Sunni Triangle.
In 2005, while still in Iraq, Circosta petitioned then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for a pardon so that Circosta could become a police officer when he returned home. And the state Board of Pardons recommended that Circosta receive that pardon.
But Romney refused. Twice.
This has confused and upset Circosta. "I've done everything I can to give back to my state and my community and my country, and to get brushed aside is very frustrating," Circosta, 29, told a reporter recently. Circosta now works as a project manager for a disaster restoration company in Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife, Danielle, and 2-year-old daughter, Kylie.
It is not as if Circosta is some serious, unrepentant criminal like, well, like Scooter Libby, for instance, whom Romney says he might pardon if Romney ever reaches the Oval Office.
Romney says he had a standard when it came to handing out pardons as governor: He didn't want to overturn jury verdicts. And so he never granted a single pardon in his four years in office, a fact he is enormously proud of today and repeatedly raises in his speeches.
But Romney's standard is flexible when it comes to Libby, who was Dick Cheney's chief of staff and whose cause has been taken up by the conservative Republican establishment.
And Romney's true standard seems to be: No pardons for nobodies. Somebodies can catch a break..........
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