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(Meanwhile, across town - sentencing was going on)
The conclusion of President Ford's testimony, with reaction at the end. I don't think anyone expected earth shattering revelations or teary-eyed confessions, but the collective skyward eye-roll wasn't either.
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(In the end, nothing much was accomplished)
In 1974, when Gerald Ford assumed the Presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon, it was more or less expected Nixon would be prosecuted for Watergate and the subsequent cover up. It came as a surprise (at least outside the Beltway) that Ford quickly pardoned Nixon of any wrongdoing and sought to make everything quietly go away.
Most people felt a sense of betrayal that Nixon would slip into the shadows without any hint of justice being served.
So a Sub-committee was formed to inquire over the pardon and President Ford was requested to come before the committee to testify. A list of questions was provided and Ford was to answer them.
In retrospect, it was more of a "let's put on a show and pretend we're being in earnest about this thing" than anything substantive. Ford answered some questions, evaded others and when it was over, the Republicans patted each other on the back in satisfaction and the Democrats, headed up by Bella Abzug, walked away frustrated and somewhat played.
So here is part one of a two part complete testimony taking place on October 17, 1974.
Questions continued to swirl Thursday over the president's decision to withdraw a pardon for a New York developer involved in a Long Island mortgage fraud scheme. Isaac Toussie, 36, was convicted in 2001 of mail fraud and of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development that stemmed from the mortgage scheme.
The White House initially announced the pardon Tuesday afternoon, immediately setting off a firestorm of criticism from angry homeowners and investors, as well as government watchdog organizations quick to note Toussie's ties to prominent Republican officeholders.
Among the questions now being asked are:
• Why didn't the White House conduct a more thorough investigation of Toussie's background?
• Why did White House Counsel Fred Fielding circumvent the typical pardon application process by directly considering Toussie's clemency request instead of leaving it to the Justice Department?
• Did Toussie get special treatment because of his political connections?
On MSNBC, Wingnut Republican Ron Christie was just very happy that Bush got it right at the end after initially granting the pardon.
When President Bush issued holiday pardons for 19 miscreants past and present on Tuesday, former Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby wasn't among them. But with the two year campaign by right-wing pundits, GOP politicos and even Republican White House hopefuls now reaching a crescendo, Libby may yet get his slate wiped clean by the outgoing President. And to be sure, nothing in George W. Bush's past statements would suggest the Plamegate felon won't get the same Weinberger treatment the President's father offered the Iran-Contra crowd this week 16 years ago.
The drumbeat to save Scooter started anew on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. While Libby was convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice in the investigation into the retaliatory outing of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, the Journal portrayed the criminal as martyr and the President's July 2007 commutation of Libby's sentence as a "half measure." Bush, the WSJ argued, should undo the "injustice inflicted" on Libby:
The judgment by a Washington, D.C. jury was more a verdict on the Bush Administration than it was about the confusing facts of Mr. Libby's alleged deceit. The Plame affair was a proxy for the larger political dispute over Iraq, and Mr. Libby became the Beltway sacrifice. By trumpeting his guilt, critics were able to impugn Mr. Bush's policies by insisting the President had "lied us into war"...
...In this dark episode, an honest man became the fall guy in a larger political war over the war. Mr. Libby deserved better -- and Mr. Bush owes it to Mr. Libby, and to future occupants of the White House, to give him a full pardon.
Writing in U.S. News, reliable Republican mouthpiece Michael Barone regurgitated the Journal's dishonest plea to rehabilitate Libby from the taint of his own law-breaking.
From the Nov. 17, 2008 edition of Countdown, guest host David Shuster, filling in for Keith Olbermann, talks to Jonathan Turley about the possibility of George Bush issuing blanket pardons for the crimes committed by himself and his administration and what it means for the rule of law that remains in the United States.
However, that's not the thing that took my breath away in this clip. Listen as Shuster and Turley both matter-of-factly admit that one of the problems that Obama has in committing to close Guantanamo is what to do with the detainees there because some of them could not go through our criminal justice system due to lack of evidence to hold them or because they've been tortured. No outrage. No wringing of hands that these people still exist, years later, within Guantanamo, as we count down the days until George Bush is finally out of office.
Yet the media can get up in arms about Hillary Clinton can "subvert her agenda" to serve as Secretary of State and rehash that ad nauseam? We can have an academic discussion on presidential pardons (and not fail to mention Clinton, mind you), but when it come to authentic crimes against humanity that merit a full blown trial in The Hague, the media yawns, as if it's just par for course.
My god, when did we lose our moral compass that this kind of atrocity is an academic discussion instead of a rallying call for justice? Per Robert Jay Lifton, this is our American Apocalypse.
