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CounterPunch
December
27, 2002
Pardon the Interruption
by ELAINE CASSEL
Two years ago, the Supreme Court was the Grinch
that stole Christmas, stealing the election right out of the
hands of the voters and giving the gift of the presidency to
their appointee, George II.
This year, it is George II himself who
stole Christmas, issuing seven presidential pardons that, like
most of what George II does, makes a mockery of substance and
the process. Presidential pardons, a constitutional power that
allows a President to demonstrate compassion and give hope to
people caught in the federal government's increasingly broad
criminal injustice net, got a bad name with Clinton's pardon
of financier Marc Rich. But Clinton, at the end of his second
term, made some moving pardons, including some caught in the
federal government's draconian drug laws.
But the Bush pardons say much about Bush,
besides his ability to distort every Presidential act into a
bad joke. The choice points out how personal and business interests
drove his choices. Let's see, he pardoned a moonshiner, no doubt
feeling compassion for a fellow boozer and violator of alcohol-related
laws (recall Bush's drunk driving conviction that was swept under
the rug, not to mention his own daughter's criminal offenses
related to alcohol). A man was fined, fined mind you, for making
a false statement to the Social Security Administration. Well,
given the way this Administration obfuscates the truth, Bush
can certainly identify with a liar. He pardoned two men who stole
from businesses--one who stole grain and one who stole copper
wire. Well, one does not have to look far beyond Enron to see
how Bush has compassion for guys who loot businesses.
And, oh yes, Bush, who escaped the onus
of military service and now is so anxious to send tends of thousands
of Americans to war against Iraq (and can Korea and Iran be far
behind), pardoned a Jehovah's Witnesses minister who failed to
report for induction in 1957. This pardon fills two squares--Bush's
hypocrisy about military service and his "faith-based"
initiative. Let's hope our young people remember when Bush sends
them to face off against hand-to-hand combat and nerve gas.
Finally, the one I like the best, is
the pardon of a man for altering an odometer. I had the misfortune
of catching Tim Russert slavishly courting Laura Bush on television
last Sunday. She, answering the question of a young girl who
wrote her asking if she and the Pres had horses at the ranch,
replied that no, they did not have horses. Because, she says,
my husband is a "windshield cowboy." Meaning, of course,
that he rides around the terrain in his macho pick-up truck.
Then, too, altering odometers and defrauding unsuspecting purchasers
falls into the wink to fraud represented by Enron, Harvey Pitt,
Henry Kissinger, Cheney and Haliburton-need I go on?
In contrast, a short story in the December
25, 2002 New York Times caught my eye and really got me going
on this pardon rant. A Dutch court convicted a doctor of assisting
in a patient's suicide (against the law there, in contrast to
euthanasia, which is not). But the doctor received no punishment,
the judge finding that he acted out of "compassion"
for his patient.
I could go on about the lack of compassion
among President and government for people and environment, the
Congress, with the help of the Senate's new Teflon-coated Republican
leader, Bill Frist, making sure that parents whose children are
rendered brain-damaged by mercury in Eli Lilly (his biggest campaign
contributor) vaccines are left without legal remedy, the D.C.
Court of Appeals striking down a DHHS Medicaid waiver that allowed
Maine to negotiate drug discounts for its neediest citizens who
are not eligible for Medicaid (a waiver approved during the Clinton
administration), the announcement of rules that open up the National
Parks to oil drilling and mining.
But I digress.
The Bush Administration grinches stole
Christmas this year and will do so for years to come, the effects
lingering long after its elves are (if ever) gone. It is up to
us to (and I know it sounds corny but it is our only hope to
survive what is sure to be a grim couple of years), to keep Christmas,
its spirit of compassion and hope, in our hearts. Because in
the near term, that is the only place it is going to be kept.
Elaine Cassel
practices law in Virginia and the District of Columbia. She also
teaches law and psychology and is the author of Criminal
Behavior (Allyn & Bacon, 2001). She is a contributer
to CounterPunch. Cassel can reached at cassel@counterpunch.org.
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