How High Can You Go?

Headlines often feature a helium like quality. "Former counsel to the vice-president" is not nearly so sexy as "high ranking" government official. The natural curiosity of any scandal in government is how how "high" it goes - or how "high" it can be pushed in the minds of partisans, administration critics and the general reading / listening audience. The closest plausible "official" proximity to the president is the ultimate prize, and it always has been ... yes even before Richard Nixon and Woodward and Armstrong came along.

Let's play the "official" proximity game shall we? Excluding the expected horde of fellow partisans and political supporters, to whom have presidents extended the benefits of federal executive clemency? Ulysses S. Grant appointed his fellow soldier pal John MacDonald to be a Internal Revenue Supervisor and a series of indictments and convictions followed shortly thereafter. Grant openly criticized government prosecutors from trying to reach "higher" in his administration and prosecutors accused "the administration" of "interference" with investigations into the Whiskey Ring. Grant pardoned MacDonald and numerous others in relevant states and, when one district attorney complained about it, Grant had him removed.

Harry Truman lobbied the Kennedy administration with great intensity for the pardon of his personal appointments secretary, Matthew Connelly - and succeeded. Lyndon Johnson pardoned Truman's close friend, James P. Finnegan (a internal revenue officer), and the head of the tax division in the Justice Department during the Truman administration (Theron Lamar Caudle). George H.W. Bush pardoned Reagan's Secretary of Defense (Casper Weinberger) and Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs (Eliot Abrams). Bill Clinton pardoned the individual he had appointed to be Director of the CIA (John Deutch). Whew! Anyone see any patterns in all of that?