Caspar Weinberger set the precedent that sinks any chance of prosecutions for illegal spying..

[Fumesucker]

The Democrats let Bush 41 preemptively pardon Cap the Knife for his part in Iran Contra without as much as a whimper.

That precedent, a preemptive pardon, is what will make criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of illegal spying impossible, Bush 43 is simply going to preemptively pardon any and all high level persons connected with the spying.

If the Democrats had pursued Iran Contra to the bitter end then we would not be where we are today, look how many of the faces in the Bush 43 administration are retreads from Bush 41.. But the Dems let Iran Contra slide "for the good of the country" and it has now come around to bite us in the ass like an alligator on 'roids and meth.

Both avenues of discovery in the illegal spying are now closed, preemptive pardons firewall criminal prosecution and now telecom immunity has firewalled civil suits.

We will never know what really happened to bring Ashcroft et al. to the point of threatening resignation over illegal spying. We do know that if Ashcroft threatened to resign over it, it must have been horrendous.

[Howardx]

1. you got it

we should have destroyed them when we had our foot on their necks.

[eShirl]

2. wasn't Ford's pardon of Nixon pre-emptive?

[Fumesucker]

3. Yes, you're right..

Another Democratic roll over "for the good of the country", eh?

I would argue that the Weinberger pardon was considerably more egregious and also more applicable to this situation since it was designed to keep Weinberger's diary from coming to light in court.

Which is basically what any forthcoming Bush 43 pardons will be designed to do, keep guilty knowledge secret.