Pardon My French

Ah, it's that time of Olympiad. The time when a lame-duck president issues pardons with little political fallout. So who is and who isn't getting a pardon?

Donald Rumsfeld

After a bipartisan Senate report unanimously concluded that Rumsfeld and other Administration officials were directly responsible for abuses committed at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, Amnesty International was afraid Bush would grant them a blanket pardon:

After eight years of defiling America's reputation and renouncing our founding principles, the Bush administration wants to jet off into the sunset without answering to the American public...One of our three main objectives during President-elect Obama's 100 days is to ensure an independent commission investigates abuses committed the U.S. government in its "war on terror". Pardoning key officials, or even worse, issuing a blanket pardon, would undermine this critical goal towards restoring our commitment to human rights.

But White House officials have said that such pardons are unnecessary; that would imply that what those officials did was wrong and illegal. You gotta love these guys.

Especially Keith Urbahn, a Rumsfeld spokesman. (Someone still likes Rumsfeld enough to work for him?) Said Urbahn of the Senate report, "It's regrettable that Senator Levin has decided to use the committee's time and taxpayer dollars to make unfounded allegations against those who have served our nation." Yeah, right, it was a political hit job. That's why all twelve of the Republicans on the committee went along with it.

Isaac Robert Toussie

Toussie was a real estate scammer who helped a hundred people illegally qualify for HUD-sponsored mortgages. His father donated $28,500 to the Republican National Committee. And on Christmas Eve it was announced that he would be receiving a presidential pardon.

Presidential pardons, once granted, are irrevocable. But Toussie's pardon had not yet been executed. And due to popular opposition, President Bush directed the Pardon Attorney not to execute it.