The President has pardoned and commuted before hasn't he ?
That is why he has a staff , egregious miscarrages of justice ought to be brought to his attention , whether of the powerfull or the powerless.
There won't ever be a large number of these pardons and commutations tho , if there were a very large number I would expect Judges to resign in protest at the micromanagement.
To say the commutation of the morally superficial Scooter is a rectification of an "egregious miscarriage of justice" is like claiming Dalhmer got shafted.
A man is ulltimately judged by his actions, and a true read is possible once things reflected in scripted platitudes completed by others for pay are tossed away like shuck.
Scooter's whole enchilada--his faithful, loyal sewer-swimming for Cheney--will hardly be missed by history's eye, and that line will be about the only one about him to appear in any meaningful history book, save that his pardoner's face shone real for a second, as if someone inadvertantly turned the wrong lights on the Kabuki actor.
Still, I see a narrow but salient litmus in presidential pardons and commutations.
It is hard to spin away what is reflected when a president presides in this priviledge.
With Bush, for instance,the outcry of his hypocracy--given his previous brassy Judge Roy Bean posturings about infractions of the law--created a din which even he had to hear, bunkered and pouting in his bubble.
People point out that Bill Clinton pardoned his little brother and Mark Rich, etc.
Since a presidential pardon contains such raw, final power, and is so singularly individual, the parameters regarding criticisms--especially the little, politically- based bitchings--must be somewhat relaxed to accomodate its very essence.
But Clinton, able to eat crow enough to save Rich and bro, was not able to stand up to the FBI director, his own appointee, and the several hundred FBI personnel who picketed the White House to keep him from pardoning Leonard Peltier. Most of America would not find this pardon much more than real justice.
Clinton knew.
Clinton caved, and I always remind Democrats that he did.
It was unforgivable, and stripped away much of my respect or advocation for the man.
See how strong a pardon can affect someone.
