Conservatives Want Bush to Issue "Pre-Emptive Pardons" to Officials Involved in Illegal Programs

[Demeter]

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/92342/

...According to the (NY)Times, “several members of the conservative legal community” in Washington D.C. are urging Bush to issue “pre-emptive pardons” to those involved so as to “not be exposed even to the risk of an investigation and expensive legal bills”:

Such a pardon would reduce the risk that a future administration might undertake a criminal investigation of operatives or policy makers involved in programs that administration lawyers have said were legal but that critics say violated laws regarding torture and surveillance.

Some legal analysts said Mr. Bush might be reluctant to issue such pardons because they could be construed as an implicit admission of guilt...



“The president should pre-empt any long-term investigations,” said Victoria Toensing, who was a Justice Department counterterrorism official in the Reagan administration. “If we don't protect these people who are proceeding in good faith, no one will ever take chances.”



Stuart Taylor, Jr., a constitutional law fellow at Brookings, agrees, saying in a recent Newsweek column that investigations into the Bush administration’s “high level ‘war crimes’” are a “bad idea” and instead called for a “truth commission“:



A criminal investigation would only hinder efforts to determine the truth, and preclude any apologies. It would spur those who know the most to take the Fifth. Any prosecutions would also touch off years of partisan warfare. <…>

Absent pardons, pressure to go after GOP “war criminals” would make it very hard to unite Americans of all stripes behind solutions to the many economic and social challenges facing the country.

In fact, the conservative D.C. lawyer circuit may just get its wish. The White House “would not say whether the administration was considering pre-emptive pardons, nor whether it would rule them out.”

[liberal N proud]

1. Blanket pardons

makes them all look guilty.

[DCKit]

3. If it looks like a duck and quacks 24/7.... n/t

[mediaman007]

7. Didn't some of them already get pardons from G.H.W. Bush (41)?

[KansDem]

2. Didn't this all start with Ford's pardon of Nixon?

I remember astute citizens asking, "If Nixon didn't do anything wrong, and he is innocent until proven guilty, then why pardon him?"

Apparently, preemptive pardons for Repubs are becoming commonplace.

[tbyg52]

17. Yes it did.

I'm no longer sure Ford had a deal already worked out (I thought that at the time), but I *am* sure it was the most destructive thing he ever did.

[Turbineguy]

4. Just pardon all

republicans.

That should just about cover it.

[Demeter]

5. I'd Rather Jail Them All- Pre-emptively!

They fill out a voter registration card, declare their party affiliation, and get whisked off to SingSing. Sort of like Gitmo for fascists and fools and white collar criminals.

[tanyev]

6. He'd better sharpen his crayon and get started right away.

It will take a long time to sign that many documents.

[IndianaGreen]

8. A pardon won't protect them from extradition to The Hague

We hung the Nazis after WWII. Lucky for Bush & Co that the International Crimes Court has not death penalty.

[starroute]

9. That's Victoria 'outing Valerie Plame was not a crime' Toensing

As always, doing what she does best.

[procopia]

11. and Victoria "rule of law" Toensing

regarding Clinton's impeachment, that is.

[classysassy]

18. The redhead hag

is not a truth teller.

[JDPriestly]

10. We don't want our leader s to "take chances." We want them

to be prudent in making decisions. That is something I admire in Obama. I believe he is prudent.

The White House can pardon for anything, but not for impeachment. That is why, if we are ever to find out the facts about what this administration is doing or has done, there has to be an impeachment process. There will be no excuse for delay in the final months of this administration. The excuse that Congress has better things to do will not be believed. It is important to impeach not in order to punish people, but in order to determine the facts. Let history judge them based on the facts, but the facts must be exposed. And soon. I fear it will be too late if we wait.

The economy is like a field of land mines about to go off under the feet of the new president. The focus after January will not be on ascertaining facts about the wrongs of this administration, but about economic survival for most Americans. We are going to have to pull together. Let's get the facts out now, so that history can judge this administration. Impeach by January.

[groovedaddy]

12. Don't you just love it when all that "law and order" shit just flies out the window?

They're just a bunch of fucking opportunists. When breaking the law serves their ends, they hop right on the train!

[paparush]

13. Reality - Take it away!! Take it far, far away!!

Gott, these people make me sick.

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR SOMETHING.

I liked the DU thread the other day that now, EVERY Republican is named George W. Bush.

[Doctor_J]

14. If he does this before the election the publicity might give us 60 Senate seats

Obama and the DSCC should start issuing daily memes re: "Rule of Law", demanding that * declare whether he'll do that or not.

[Doctor_J]

15. Hmm...The only reason big piles of pardons would be neccessary is that

there are big piles of guilty people in the GOP. Time for the DSCC and DCCC to run with this sound bite.

[MasonJar]

16. He had better start now; the list is sooooooo looooooong.