Mystery of presidential pardons only deepens

Three moonshiners, three drug dealers, a bank robber and two men who lied on loan applications were among the 11 people granted pardons last week by President Bush, whose 69 clemency orders recently exceeded Bill Clinton’s total 56. It’s difficult to see the logic that goes into any president’s pardons — Bush’s latest included a man convicted in 1948. And there may be something to columnist Debra Saunders’ contention that “it’s as if the administration doesn’t want to be criticized for meting out too little mercy — so it throws mercy where it is least needed.”
In this round, you have to wonder about Bush’s pardon of Wendy St. Charles, a lawyer for a Denver homebuilder, MDC Holdings, whose chairman and his wife are responsible for more than half a million dollars in contributions to Republican campaigns. What, other than political connections, sets St. Charles apart from the others convicted of similar drug crimes?
Posted by Rhonda Holman

3 Comments

  1. Steven E.
    Posted December 29, 2005 at 11:04 am | Permalink

    I wondered if some of the people pardoned weren’t dead already and if that is true, does this gesture mean much to anybody?

    It kind of reminds me of the military gesture of giving alien Mexican U.S. soldiers citizenship after they are killed in Iraq. Might have been a more meaningful gesture to provide citizenship to the soldier and immediate family B4 they were killed.

  2. Ed Friedemann
    Posted December 29, 2005 at 12:02 pm | Permalink

    Things like this are to be expected when you put “the rats in charge of the cheese.”

    Nothing surprises me anymore about Bush or those gathered around him. It has reached the point where the worse has become the norm.

  3. brown
    Posted December 29, 2005 at 8:51 pm | Permalink

    Is this the same George Bush who was critical of some of Clinton’s pardons? It reminds me of the saying “The pot calling the kettle black”.