Truthdig: King George the Merciless

[marmar]

Gene Gerard: King George the Merciless

Posted on Jan 11, 2007



The White House recently announced that President Bush had issued pardons to 16 individuals. Their offenses included bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the government, possession of marijuana and cocaine, and mail fraud. During his first term, Bush issued a mere 31 pardons and commutations. To date he has issued 113 pardons and three commutations. That’s less than any other two-term president in the modern era. In fact, you have to go back to George Washington to find a president who served two terms and made fewer acts of clemency.

The president’s power to grant pardons was clearly enshrined in the United States Constitution, Article II, Section 2: “The President ... shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” Although the framers of the Constitution debated clemency, it was not viewed as a controversial idea. There was debate about making presidential pardons subject to the consent of the Senate, but the idea was quickly rejected.

As the Founding Fathers were working out the details of the Constitution in Philadelphia, they seem to have essentially agreed that the privilege to exercise mercy, on which the power to issue pardons was founded, could be most easily granted by a single person rather than a legislative body or even judges. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist Number 74, wrote that “ ... one man appears to be a more eligible dispenser of the mercy of the government than a body of men.”

Over the years, presidents have issued pardons to and commuted the sentences of a motley band of crooks, criminals and scoundrels. President Washington gave amnesty to the instigators of the Whiskey Rebellion, while President Andrew Johnson did the same for Confederate rebels. President Richard Nixon issued a commutation to organized crime figure Jimmy Hoffa, only to be pardoned himself by President Gerald Ford after the Watergate scandal.

President Jimmy Carter gave amnesty to the Vietnam War draft resisters and commuted the sentence of bank robber Patty Hearst. President Ronald Reagan issued a pardon to George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees for having made illegal campaign contributions in the 1960s. President George H.W. Bush pardoned Iran-Contra scandal figure Caspar Weinberger. President Bill Clinton infamously pardoned fugitive financier Mark Rich, whose wife had been a major contributor to the Democratic National Committee. ....(more)

The rest of the article is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070111_gene_gerard_king_george_the_merciless/

[Missy M]

1. Interesting, of all the pardons mentioned Bill Clinton's....

pardon of Mark Rich was the infamous one.

[PATRICK]

2. This bodes ill for Bush co-conspirators

He seems inclined only to pardon petty examples of his own wrongdoings. If this is setting the stage for getting his possible witness for the prosecution off there is hardly much effort in it. Also not many
Bush tools are indicted yet nor does Junior possibly believe himself prudently disposed to get the blanket out.

And where is the mercy factor for these particular tokens? One could empty whole prisons following these standards, nor is there any political healing motivation at all present. It is the barest keeping open of the option as a vague threat against prosecutors.