by Damozel | Apparently, the power to issue presidential pardons is one more way Bush and his pals can make a bad job look even worse. At The Politico, Josh Gerstein reminds us of Bill Clinton twelfth-hour pardoning frenzy and does a bit of speculation about what Bush might do.
You might want to begin by taking a look at these, just as a brief refresher:
Justice Department: Weapon against Political Enemies? (Oct 11, 2007)
Bush's Clemency Record, Mockery of Woman on Death Row (Jul 6, 2007)Judiciary Committee Releases Negative Report on Bush Administration (Jan 14, 2009)
Krugman on Why Obama Should Hold Bush Admin. Accountable (Updated: Comments from Conyers) (Jan 16, 2009)
Now here are just a few of Politico's predictions:
Odds Bush will Pardon Alberto "I Don't Recall" Gonzalez, with the only "con" being the possibility of being seen as self-serving HA HA HA HA HA: 1 to 1.
Possibly the premier post ever written on Gonzalez was this by satirist Jon Swift: I Don't Recall the Title for this Alberto Gonzalez Post (Apr 20, 2007)
See also:
Jon Stewart Finds Holes in Justice Department Testimony (May 27, 2007)
Senate No-Confidence Vote on Gonzales This Monday (Jun 8, 2007)
Who Will Defend Gonzalez? Fox News: "We Had No Takers." (Jul 30, 2007)
The Latest Skeleton to Stagger Out of Gonzalez's Crypt? (Updated) (Aug 1, 2007)
U.S. Attorney General Resigns (Aug 27, 2007)
"I Would Prefer Not To." Ruth Marcus on Alberto Gonzalez (Aug 28, 2007)
More Evidence of Bush Administration Truths Re: Iraq (Dec. 23, 2008)
Alberto Gonzalez Promises a "Tell-All" Book, Though He Still Can't Recall Doing Anything Wrong (Jan 1, 2009)
Odds Bush Will Pardon (fully) Scooter Libby: Weighing the pros and cons, the Politico gives odds of 1 to 2, with the main "con" being that to grant Libby a full pardon would remind the public of what the public already knows: "Could remind public of Bush’s failure to dismiss those accused of leaking Plame’s identity" after, you know, he went through the motions of outrage and promised to hold anyone who leaked the identity of the CIA agent accountable.
Has Scooter suffered enough by being disbarred and losing his job?
Cheney's Bizarre Defense re: Valerie Plame (May 20, 2007)
Pardon This: Bush Rescues Libby from "Excessive" Prison Term (Jul. 2, 2007)
Conservative Paper Cites Clinton to Criticize Bush (Jul 3, 2007)
The Legal Experts Weigh in on the Libby Pardon and Scooter Libby's Very Special Treatment (Jul 3, 2007)
Bush's Clemency Record, Mockery of Woman on Death Row (Jul 6, 2007)
More Evidence of Bush Administration Lies: Cheney Admits that His Talking Points Helped Bring About the Outing of Valerie Plame? (With Music Video) (Dec. 24, 2008)
Odds Bush Will Pardon Bradley "Justice = Just Us: or, It's All Just Politics to Me" Schlozman, thereby clearing aide whom DoJ has already "cleared," with the only con being apparent endorsement of politicization of the DoJ: 4 to 1.
See:
Scandal Overview: Fired US Attorneys (May 19, 2007)
Schlozman Testimony: An "I Don't Recall" Avalanche (Jun 6, 2007)
DoJ's Schlozman Alters Testimony and Looks for Loophole (Jun 12, 2007)
Fired U.S. Attorney McKay Speaks Out (Jun 13, 2007)
Wan Kim Testifies (Schlozman & Hiring for Civil Rights Division) (Jun 22, 2007)
Justice Department: Weapon against Political Enemies? (Oct 11, 2007)
Firing US Attorneys: GOP Tools Buchanan (Cyril Wecht & Tommy Chong) & Martin (Scrushy, Siegelman, & Schmitz) Refusing to Leave (Jan 17, 2009)
Odds Bush Will pardon perpetrators of torture --- sorry: "enhanced interrogation" --- of prisoners in "the war on terror": Politico reckons the odds are 4 to 1, partly because of the difficulty of crafting language that will pardon the guilty without naming them.
"Necessary Torture": The Interview of John Kiriakou (Updated) (Dec 11, 2007)
Were 'Brainwashing' Techniques Used on US Servicemen in Korea Part of the Training at Guantanamo? (Jul 2 2008)
Iraq Detainees Held in Small Crates (Aug 13, 2008)
Polish Agents Allege Existence of Secret CIA Prison Facility in Poland? (Sep 7, 2008)
Former Interrogator Still Tormented by Recollections of Practices Used in Iraq (Dec 1, 2008)
The Torture Administration (Jan 9, 2009)
Bush Admits to Approving Torture, Questionably Claims that Good Intel was Gained (Jan 12, 2009)
The Anchorage Daily News reports that a request for a pardon for our friend Ted Stevens is in the offing. Poor old thing, I hope Bush gives him one. They had 40 years to convict him of corruption and didn't git 'er done till he reached the age of 84. But see:
Palin Pal Republican Sen. Ted Stevens Convicted on all Seven Felony Counts (Oct 27, 2008)
Ted Stevens Hopes to Save Senate Seat with Post-Conviction Ad (Nov 3, 2008)
"There's a long list of crooked Republicans who would love to be pardoned," remarks an implacable Joe Sudbury at AMERICAblog.
Yeah! How about prospective pardoning for Rove, who has had a spot of trouble in Ohio? Or how about the Prince of Darkness himself, Richard "You Don't Know Dick" Cheney?
Meanwhile, at The Daily Beast, Kenneth Roth wonders if Bush will pardon himself.
No president, not even Richard Nixon facing possible Watergate charges, has ever pardoned himself.... (More...)
"The purpose of the pardon is to allow the president to rectify injustices or exercise compassion, not to commit crimes with impunity. To issue a pardon for potentially unlawful executive actions after having blocked Justice Department scrutiny of them would be to create a presidency above the law," Roth muses, just as if "a presidency above the law" weren't exactly what we've had for the last eight years.
Alan Colmes too "wonders if there will one day be a push to pardon the pardoner." That would be a sort of ultimate comment on Bush and his administration, wouldn't it? I almost hope he does it. Wait, sorry; who said that? Um...okay, never mind.
In default of Bush signing off in that ultimate ULTIMATE "in yer face" style, the Heretik comments on this last chance for him to give us the bird in "King for a Day."
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