Presidential pardon purely nonsense

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Written by Charlie Wheeler

Thursday, 04 December 2008 13:25

Article II, section 2 of the Constitution says the president “shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” If this isn’t reason enough to send an application into the White House than I don’t know what is.

So, with this immense power, why don’t we hear more about pardons? Well, because for some reason presidents get a real “stiffy” pardoning the biggest wieners ever, and either the Democrats or Republicans in Congress will have a problem with it.

Hence, here comes the holidays, the time every four or eight years where we get to gaze in awe at our televisions, hearing the good news that Bush wants to pardon those who water-boarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

However, a week after Obama is sworn in, we’ll completely forget about the pardon … like we do every time. Does anyone even remember Clinton’s pardon? Or maybe Bush Sr.’s? I highly doubt it. But no matter how unmemorable it is, it’s still important – I think.

But let’s step back and think for a second. How much do we really know about all this stuff? How much of the politics do we actually see? I’d wager a bet that it’s very little. It’s very possible that Bush has little to no choice as to whom he gets to pardon.

He might just wake up one night, two in the morning with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates standing above him, holding the gay marriage ban over a paper shredder. “Pardon the water-boarders” he’d say, moving the ban closer to it’s demise. Sweat breaking out on W’s face, he’d jump forward “NO! Anything you want!”

Well, maybe not. But nonetheless I’m sure there’s always more to the story. For instance, I talk to so many people who think that the president, one man in a democratic nation, can completely crash the economy. Granted, he’s the most powerful man in the nation, and this country is poorly educated about everything, but there is no reason to assume that one person can destroy everything.

Whenever Bush is involved, there’s more to the story, because let’s face it, he probably couldn’t decide whether or not to fold the toilet paper or bunch it without a team to assist him.

But, I’m kind of happy being ignorant. I think I find answers and search into facts before making too many assumptions. When it comes to politics however, I’m pretty sure that the more ignorant I am, the safer I am. I don’t want to get too deep and wake up one night with Robert Gates standing over me with a ban on “House” and all other USA TV programming.

So even though I think this whole pardon business is “poodunky,” I figure all we can do is complain for a while, then go play with our toys. That’s the pleasure of free speech. It doesn’t mean we can actually change anything, but boy can we complain.

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