by Russell Greer

Created on: July 03, 2007   Last Updated: September 18, 2007

Article II of the U.S. Constitution gives the President of the United States the absolute power to grant pardons and reprieves to anyone he sees fit. Former-President Bill Clinton, perhaps more well-versed in constitutional law than our current President, states in an article entitled, "My Reasons for the Pardons," that this power is "broad and unreviewable." Mr. Clinton goes on to cite several decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court. Most notable among these were United States v. Klein and Biddic v. Perovich. Mr. Clinton is on sound legal ground here...the power of pardon and reprieve is absolute, as precedent has so clearly demonstrated.

President Bush's recent commutation of sentence for former Vice Presidential aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for obstruction of justice in the mysterious "outing" of CIA operative, Valerie Plame, has set off a screeching, howling tsunami of protest from the Democratic Party in Washington. Mr. Bush thought Libby's 30-month prison sentence to be "excessive;" one of the reasons Mr. Clinton gave in more than a few of his pardons and reprieves. Other past Presidents have done the same in hundreds of cases per administration. So, Scooter Libby walks away off the hook for the 30 months, but still ON the hook for a $250,000 fine and two years of probation.

Critics, such as Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., obviously as devoid of any in-depth legal knowledge as his outspoken and obnoxious father, has once again unfurled the banner of impeachment for Mr. Bush's "crimes against the Constitution." Obviously, the junior Jackson was playing to the crowd in the cheap seats. But, hold on there, Lil Jesse...President Bush was acting wholly within the powers granted him as Chief Executive by the Constitution and the Supreme Court, via its long-established right of judicial review.

This is all well and good. Bush has done nothing legally wrong. He has committed no "crime" against the U.S. Constitution, despite the protestations of Rep. Jackson to the contrary. If anything, he has committed a crime against "sound judgment." With a mismanaged "war on terror" and a stalled domestic agenda already to his credit, historians may very well judge his administration in the harshest of terms. At this juncture, Mr. Bush runs the very real risk of being whisked into history's dustbin alongside the exceedingly inept and corrupt administration of Ulysses S. Grant. Several areas of concern are worth examination:

First, Mr. Bush intervened in a case that was still in litigation.

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