Beg Your Pardon?
Bush's power to pardon is basically unlimited. Could he legally pardon himself?
Last fall, Democratic congressional staffers vigorously researched what options they have to head Bush off at the pass. There don't appear to be many. Congress could try to curb the president in some way—for instance, forbidding pardons in the final days of his administration—but no one knows whether this would hold up in court. Pardon power could be limited with a constitutional amendment, but...that's an impossibility.
Some scholars believe Bush could even pardon himself. (Nixon considered it.) A less dramatic, and equally effective, way to protect himself would be to pardon his immediate subordinates, making it difficult to use the threat of prosecution to force them to testify against him. (The precedent here was set by Bush père. In the final days of his term, he pardoned several Iran-Contra figures who might have implicated him in the scandal.) There's also speculation that Bush might offer blanket immunity to anyone connected to the torture policy. However, anyone Bush pardons will no longer be at risk of self-incrimination—and therefore will not be able to plead the Fifth Amendment if ever called to testify.
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Nothing, absolutely nothing will happen to Bush & Co. There is only party in the United States and that is the party of big business, all the members of which watch out for each other while each one reaps what they can get from corporate hand outs. America's future is toward the right, sorry to say.
I'm with Vincent Bugliosi that George W. Bush should be prosecuted for Murder as well as war crimes but we know that won't happen.
I did figure out a way for him to get out of it though if he uses it I'll feel horrible.
Pardon Cheney et al and then resign now. Then Cheney pardons Bush. As a bonus Cheney then gets presidential retirement benefits. I bet they have thought of it.
This has been the longest eight years of my life.
And from which Constitution did he get the power to commute anyone's sentence?
And Papa before him - how do you pardon someone before they're convicted?
Can Bush pardon himself before the fact? He hasn't been prosecuted or even indicted for anything yet, and I've never heard of pardons being used to ward off prosecutions after the fact.
Is Obama going to eliminate the pardon? Don't forget that everything that applies to Bush in that area also applies to Obama; isn't that scary so much power for the people running the state?
Lori, Mark, did y'all read the article?
"Brian Kalt, a Michigan State law professor and a historian of the presidential pardon, says that "as long as it's for a criminal federal offense, there don't seem to be any limits at all" to the pardon power. President Gerald Ford issued a preemptive blanket pardon to Richard Nixon in 1974, establishing a broad precedent that's never been challenged."
So the preemptive pardon has been established and the constitution is our own. It's in our Constitution of The United States of America before any of the amendments.
It takes a constitutional amendment to change the pardon powers of a president so even our Blessed Savior Obama cannot do it.
I would suggest that any bush administration official whom had deprived the US taxpayers of any valuable items could be prosecuted under a broad heading of theft by swindle. One example would be the global warming research out of NASA, -- the results of which were modified by a political operative. The scientific conclusions in the report were stolen from taxpayers when the work product was not truthfully disclosed to the public. This might be a stretch, but without these people paying a price this propaganda will hobble our ability to confront and solve problems we face.
Can American jurists be so barbarously ignorant as to have forgotten the principle of Conflict of Interest? If he pardons himself, he demonstrates that he has committed a crime. Upon what Constitutional basis can a President who disqualifies himself through a great crime act credibly as judge of his own legal status?
Bush could pardon Cheney then resign his office making Cheney President till Obama takes office.
then Brother Cheney could pardon Bush before he Cheney, is replaced by Obama... but this stuff would have to get going RIGHT AWAY!
Woops! John Henry stated this same action earlier on, Sorry I didn't read yours first JH. I agree with you 100% on the length and intencity of this last 8 years too.
Meet you for a beer?
wes
Could Bush legally pardon himself? Bush bother doesn't concern himself with considerations of legality and would pardon himself even, or especially, if it is illegal.
Why would Bush need to Pardon anyone? Obama, taking his cue from Pelosi, has already indicated that he won't take any action against Bush & Co.
They had one and failed to use sure way to prevent the president from issuing a slew of pardons - impeachment.
George W., early on, indicated that he does not make mistakes; hence he has no need to be pardoned nor pardon himself. I say, goodye to him by asking God to have mercy upon him for he may in truth, not really have known what he was all about for America and the whole world, while speaking and acting fully, like an Emperor and King of the American Empire! By the way, only a complete idiot can think of America as not being the most ruthless Empire the world has ever known! Yes, the most ruthless while constantly demanding of God to bless America. Yes, while the evil one more and more, smiles from ear to ear.
If Obama drops the ball on investigation, prosecution, and convictions for those who violated our Constitution and international law, then he OWNS IT.
There is already proof that several persons in the Bush Administration have done exactly that, and they are war criminals. Do we take care of our own business or do we let foreign nations do it for us?
Without this prosecution, we are giving other nations the green light to torture our soldiers and apprehend members of our government who approved torture at Gitmo, Iran, Afghanistan, and a gulag of secret prisons around the world.
America needs reassurance that we are a nation of laws, not of imperial majesty. Obama will take an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution; this makes it imperative that he initiate and champion a full accounting.
-Wexler
What a phony country. How the [deleted] can one pardon one's self.?
The murdering son-of-a-[deleted] should be tried for mass murder. Democracy my ass.
This entire discussion reminds me of the right when Bill Clinton was leaving office. It's a bunch of sour grapes. Hey, your guy won. Be gracious in victory and for gods sake quite crying about the "last eight years being the longest of my life". If that is true it must have been a very fine life.
I hope Bush does pardon his entire gang of co-criminals because accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt. Anyone that accepts a pardon could be prosecuted for WAR CRIMES in a number of countries because the strength of that pardon ends at the boundrys of our country (Think Pinocet of Argentina) It would be political suicide to be the one to charge them here but if he just stands back and lets it happen in another country Bush will have given Obama all the cover he needs with the Pardons (admission of guilt)
Gerald Ford pardoned President Nixon before Nixon was convicted of anything.
Why would Bush need to pardon himself? He has done nothing wrong. He has not broken any federal law, though he may have bent them from time to time. As far as violating some silly international statute, thanks to the Bush Administration, US citizens do not answer to international courts when in the performance of their duty, and certainly no US court is going to prosecute him for violations of so-called international law. Further, no foreign power possesses the military or economic might to prosecute a former president of the United States for anything. So many folks say that Bush has violated this law or that or "committed mass murder" (please), when, in fact, he has done nothing of the sort. Bush is certainly not perfect, far from it, as has been seen with his economic policies -- how can one claim to depart from free market principles in order to save the free market, as he stated? -- but he has been a rousing success on the issues that count. After all, it has been seven years since any major attack on American soil. I can only hope that Blessed Obama can make such a statement as he prepares to leave office on January 20, 2013.
Bush can't pardon himself until AFTER he's convicted!
my opinion
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