Sorting Out the Pardon Mess

I'm continually seeing terms like "outrageous abuse of the pardoning power" being used in the media. This is really the only thing I object to in the condemnation of the pardons. They certainly seem to have been misguided, but with very little evidence showing that the Clintons personally benefitted from any of the pardons, it would seem that these pardons are poignantly minor in the context of the pardons of Clinton's predecessors. One pundit, in response to the attempted placing of the pardons of two financiers in context with those of Caspar Weinberger, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Hoffa, said simply, "that doesn't make it any better." No, dopey, it doesn't, but the fact remains that none of these pardons can compare to the sheer ass-saving of the pardons of Weinberger and Hoffa. The pardon of Weinberger and six others ended ongoing investigations of government officials invovled with the cover-up of the Iran-Contra affair; investigations that threatened to reach the white house had they been carried fully through. Certainly the former head of the CIA knew something of the covert actions of his country while he was vice president. The Hoffa pardon is a prime example of direct and illegal quid pro quo involving pardons. The mad-man Nixon pardoned Hoffa not just in exchange for money, but in order to get himself the union votes he needed for re-election in the wake of his refusal to end the Vietnam War, and, of course, his gunning down of student demonstrators; an act that bears remembering when we point our sanctimonious national finger at other countries and declare in our living rooms that, "it doesn't happen here."

In light of these acts by his predecessors, I have trouble seeing the Clinton pardons as, "outrageous abuse of the pardoning power" as the Times calls it. They were misguided and he should disclose all documents related to his decision making and begin repairing the political damage done by his once again over zealous political enemies. After all, were it not for Clinton's damaging pardons, the front page today may have carried something more about the fact that Bush's recollection of his stopping all money to family planning organizations goes something like this, "the money from Mexico, you know, that thing, the executive order I signed about Mexico City." Direct quote piped in to the press room.
- posted by levinson @ 2/23/2001 07:31:00 AM