The Democrats are going all-out in their efforts to manufacture malfeasance to persecute the President with:

The House Judiciary Committee has officially announced its plans for a hearing into President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison term.

The hearing will take place next Wednesday morning; titled “The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials.”

“In light of yesterday’s announcement by the President that he was commuting the prison sentence for Scooter Libby, it is imperative that Congress look into presidential authority to grant clemency, and how such power may be abused,” John Conyers said. “Taken to its extreme, the use of such authority could completely circumvent the law enforcement process and prevent credible efforts to investigate wrongdoing in the executive branch.”

Now, as far as I can tell from reading the U.S. Constitution, Article 2, Section 2, the President’s power to commute sentances for crimes against the United States is absolute, with the single exception of impeachment:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment. [emphasis mine]

So, the obvious question here is this: If the President’s authority in these matters is absolute, what exactly is it that this committee is going to investigate? If the only abuse of this power is to try to use it in a case of impeachment, and the President has not done so here, where is the abuse? How exactly was the law enforcement process circumvented? The President’s powers of commutation are a part of the law enforcement process as envisioned by the Framers of the Constitution to provide relief for just these types of circumstances (political prosecutions).

When they are done trashing President Bush, will this committee then look into Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich, which was secured by donations to the Democrat Party of over $1 Million dollars by his wife, Denise Rich? Don’t count on it; after all, Clinton was a Democrat and these people seem a bit myopic. Here is what The Hildebeast™ has to say about her husband’s pardons:

Her husband’s pardons, issued in the closing hours of his presidency, were simply routine exercise in the use of the pardon power, and none were aimed at protecting the Clinton presidency or legacy, she said.

As with anything a Clinton says, you have to parse her words carefully. The Rich pardon wasn’t about protecting the Clintons; it was a simple exchange of cash for a political favor. If you think about it, it isn’t much different from how the Clintons literally sold overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House in exchange for political contributions during their 8 years there. It almost always comes down to cash when you look at what the Clintons do.

I don’t suppose it has even occurred to these liberal morons that they are not running against President Bush in 2008. As far as I’m concerned, I am happy to let them expend all their energy concocting these ridiculous conspiracy theories against Bush; by the time they start concentrating on the 2008 Election it may well be all over for them.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 at 6:18 pm by Nick, and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.