Comments on: Pardon Me? Bush Pardons 14, More To Come?

By: quake

quake — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:34:46 +0000

I think he’s already indicated publicly that he wouldn’t. And any pardon offered him would not remotely meet the DOJ pardon guidelines in terms of time away from conviction, sentencing and serving of time. (Again, not that the Bush folks really give a crap about rules and regs, right?)

IANAL. And CHS is. So it is with some trepidation that I question CHS. But….

Isn’t it the case that any regs as to pardons are strictly guidelines for the DOJ bureaucrats who make pardon recs to POTUS, but that POTUS’s pardon powers are plenary?

That being the case, if POTUS make ill-advised pardons, there is no power on earth that can stop him, but couldn’t Congress impeach him (thereby removing his eligibility to hold any office of trust under the US govt) even after his term of office ends?

By: Bluetoe2

Bluetoe2 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:00:41 +0000

Why have a “pardon pool” when Bush is going to give a blanket pardon to anyone in his administration? A pardon doesn’t mean that Bush’s fascist allies will not meet justice at some point in time. Just not through a flawed and corrupt U.S. judicial system. Eichman could run but he couldn’t hide. A long memory can do more for the eventual adminstering of justice than a pardon granted by a fool.

By: CTuttle

CTuttle — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:58:04 +0000

Another excellent post, Christy! Aloha!

By: AmosAnan

AmosAnan — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:54:07 +0000

I’d read somewhere that the “American Taliban,” John Walker Lindh, was requesting a pardon. With due homage to Douglas Adams and his scheme to pay for a meal at the restaurant at the end of the universe, is it possible to put down a penny bet on that happening? The odds would have to be in a range that would challenge Carl Sagan’s skills at scientific notation. So I’d be a trillion trillion trillionaire on a penny bet .. and I’d only lose a penny.

Didn’t that poor sap plead guilty to a twenty something year sentence? Of course at the time he was John Ashcroft’s prime San Francisco liberal traitor to America and probably faced public drawing and quartering, never mind waterboarding.

P.S. Wasn’t Caspar Weinberger pre-emptively pardoned by Papa Bush? It’s a traditional Bush family value.

By: KayInMaine

KayInMaine — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:54:05 +0000

Darn it.

By: Christy Hardin Smith

Christy Hardin Smith — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:51:52 +0000

Sure thing. And now — it is bedtime for Peanuts. Wall-E has just concluded and wee girlies need to go to sleep.

By: Christy Hardin Smith

Christy Hardin Smith — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:51:20 +0000

Best thing Reagan ever said: “trust, but verify.” Except I modify it to “suspect and prove…every damn day.”

By: RonD

RonD — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:50:16 +0000

Thanks for the post and conversation, Christy.

By: hackworth

hackworth — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:50:14 +0000

Not bitter, really. Jaded is a better word. Suspicious. Untrusting. Snake bit.

By: Christy Hardin Smith

Christy Hardin Smith — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:49:09 +0000

Yes. I know that. It was a crappy-assed pardon in its day. As LHP has pointed out in detail, I think?