Oh Nooooooooo!
The House committee of Representative John "Unprecedented" Conyers, Jr. (D- Michigan) is going to meet on Thursday morning to discuss "The Appropriate Use of the Presidential Pardoning Power." I am not certain if Thomas Jefferson will be dug up and impeached for pardoning the newspaper editor he personally funded to libel the Adams' administration during the election of 1801, but I do know the current "witness" list. It includes: Mr. Roger C. Adams, who serves as the U.S. Pardon Attorney in the Department of Justice, Prof. Allan J. Lichtman, who teaches history at American University, and Mr. Bruce Fein, whom I have discussed here.
The list is notable in that it does not include anyone who has done either historical or empirical research on presidential pardons. Expect Mr. Adams to be precise, informative at a very general level, guarded in his generalizations and unwilling to cheer lead for this or that impression. I say that because, over the years, I have dealt with several people who work in that office and they are - without exception - courteous, focused and professional. It is easy enough for me to imagine they are underpaid for what they do and what I guess they have to put up with.
Expect the "testimony" of the other two (Lichtman and Fein) to be limited to the kind of commentary that you could basically read in the newspaper, without the benefit of a committee hearing. Fein has recently called for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. Lichtman believes George Bush won the presidency because the votes of African-Americans were thrown in the trash. Another minor detail: You will not see either of their names appear in any bibliography of any study of the pardon power. From the standpoint of clemency scholarship, they are entirely invisible, non-existent. How they came to be selected to testify before this committee, on this topic, is as mysterious as any inner-working of the White House.
With no goods to show, you can bet Fein and Lichtman will talk a lot of Nixon, Iran-Contra, Marc Rich, Steinbrenner, Hearst, post-war amnesties, Debs and, who knows, maybe the Whiskey Rebels, Mormons and FALN will also pop in there somewhere. Libby will be mentioned too, of course, but watch for the commentary on his case to be packed with innuendo and the buzz-words of the day ("abuse of power," "above the law," "bypassing the normal processes," "quid pro quo," etc.). It will also be completely void of historical context and, again, with little reference to previous uses of the pardon power beyond the pages of the typical daily newspaper. In sum, the committee will primarily be given the opportunity to investigate the opinions of commentators notable for a complete lack of distinction in relation to the primary topic of discussion.
And of course, we can expect very long speeches (clumsily disguised as "questions") from members of the committee, packed with additional innuendo, election-style rhetoric, grandstanding and finger-pointing. Sometimes there's a very thin line between a House investigation and a mad scramble for one's 15 minutes of fame.
Data? Forget about it. Data analysis? Not a chance. Sophisticated data analysis? The odds are better that Woodrow Wilson will be dug up and impeached for pardoning that twice-convicted multiple axe murderer!
Overall, it should be something like a train wreck in slow motion.
The list is notable in that it does not include anyone who has done either historical or empirical research on presidential pardons. Expect Mr. Adams to be precise, informative at a very general level, guarded in his generalizations and unwilling to cheer lead for this or that impression. I say that because, over the years, I have dealt with several people who work in that office and they are - without exception - courteous, focused and professional. It is easy enough for me to imagine they are underpaid for what they do and what I guess they have to put up with.
Expect the "testimony" of the other two (Lichtman and Fein) to be limited to the kind of commentary that you could basically read in the newspaper, without the benefit of a committee hearing. Fein has recently called for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. Lichtman believes George Bush won the presidency because the votes of African-Americans were thrown in the trash. Another minor detail: You will not see either of their names appear in any bibliography of any study of the pardon power. From the standpoint of clemency scholarship, they are entirely invisible, non-existent. How they came to be selected to testify before this committee, on this topic, is as mysterious as any inner-working of the White House.
With no goods to show, you can bet Fein and Lichtman will talk a lot of Nixon, Iran-Contra, Marc Rich, Steinbrenner, Hearst, post-war amnesties, Debs and, who knows, maybe the Whiskey Rebels, Mormons and FALN will also pop in there somewhere. Libby will be mentioned too, of course, but watch for the commentary on his case to be packed with innuendo and the buzz-words of the day ("abuse of power," "above the law," "bypassing the normal processes," "quid pro quo," etc.). It will also be completely void of historical context and, again, with little reference to previous uses of the pardon power beyond the pages of the typical daily newspaper. In sum, the committee will primarily be given the opportunity to investigate the opinions of commentators notable for a complete lack of distinction in relation to the primary topic of discussion.
And of course, we can expect very long speeches (clumsily disguised as "questions") from members of the committee, packed with additional innuendo, election-style rhetoric, grandstanding and finger-pointing. Sometimes there's a very thin line between a House investigation and a mad scramble for one's 15 minutes of fame.
Data? Forget about it. Data analysis? Not a chance. Sophisticated data analysis? The odds are better that Woodrow Wilson will be dug up and impeached for pardoning that twice-convicted multiple axe murderer!
Overall, it should be something like a train wreck in slow motion.
posted by P.S. Ruckman, Jr. | 7:40 PM
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