Pardon not intended to let criminals sidestep justice
There is growing sentiment among working-class Americans that our elected officials in Washington D.C. are above the law.
Few things have happened to dispel that belief.
Just this week President Bush commuted the 30-month prison sentence of Dick Cheney’s former top aide, Scooter Libby. Even though Libby was found guilty of four felonies, Bush felt compelled to interfere and drop the prison sentence entirely.
It’s further proof that not all people are responsible for their own actions and not everyone has to play by the rules.
While Bush stopped short of giving Libby a full pardon, he said that was not out of the question in the future. It once again raises the question of how much power the president should have and whether it’s appropriate for a president to allow criminals to sidestep their sentences.
Throughout history, this is a volatile topic and one dripping with controversy. One of the most infamous pardons was granted by President Gerald Ford to former President Richard Nixon in 1974 for official misconduct which led to the Watergate scandal. A vast majority of Americans disapproved of the pardon yet Ford granted it nonetheless.
More recently, President Clinton pardoned 140 people in a highly unpopular move that took place on his last day in office. It’s easy to argue that if all those pardons were for ‘miscarriages of justice,’ the reason the presidential pardon was written into the U.S. Constitution, Clinton would not have waited until his last day to grant them.
The point is not to pick on Clinton, Bush or Ford. It’s to ensure justice is administered fairly to all citizens. And when Scooter Libby has a 30-month prison sentence tossed aside because of his connection to Bush and Cheney, that’s not justice. All Americans ‘ regardless of politician affiliation ‘ should be outraged.
In lobbying for the president to be granted the vast power to pardon criminals in 1778, Alexander Hamilton wrote, ‘It is not to be doubted, that a single man of prudence and good sense is better fitted, in delicate conjunctures, to balance the motives which may plead for and against the remission of the punishment.’
Truth be told, ‘prudence and good sense’ is hard to find in today’s political arena. Instead it’s been replaced by partisan warfare, campaign donations, special-interest groups, and political favors.
On the surface, it may appear modern-day America should never tinker with the Constitution our founding fathers so eloquently penned. While that is normally sound advice, it is nauseating to sit back and watch convicted felons avoid jail time because they are connected to the president.
If our presidents are going to abuse such a power ‘ and blatantly abuse it right in front of America’s collective face ‘ it’s a power we should seriously consider removing.