Governor Schwarzenegger’s commutation of the sentence of Esteban Nunez is truly outrageous. The sentence that Nunez received was already quite mild in light of the offense. For Arnold to intervene and help the son of one of his political friends is profoundly corrupt, not to mention the contempt shown for the district attorney’s office, the judge and, worst of all, the family of the murdered boy.
Part of what makes this so shocking is the transformation of Schwarzenegger from a critic of California’s special interest politics into a sleazy politician at home with Sacramento’s corrupt culture. The leniency for a killer whose father is a well-connected liberal ally is the culmination of that transformation.
It’s as if we are watching a modern-day Animal Farm played out in front of us. Just as in Orwell’s novel, when we look through the window at Arnold carousing with the liberal grandees in Sacramento, we can’t tell them apart.