Do you think that’s how it went?
I was going to write about something different today but
then this blasted all over the news yesterday, starting with NBC breaking into
football coverage with their “OMG It’s A
Special Report! Batten Down the Hatches, Kiss Your Loved Ones Goodbye and
Gather ‘Round the TV” news alert.
I was like, “Aw
crap, what’s he done now?” assuming it would be about a new atrocity from
TFG.
Then it turned out to be “Biden pardons his son,” and I thought, “Meh, whatever. It’s about time.”
Yes, despite prior declarations to the contrary, the
President pardoned his long-suffering son from the phony-baloney gun and tax
charges, and anything else the next Administration can pretend was a crime.
I thought Biden’s statement made perfect sense. He told
it like it is, that his son didn’t deserve to get locked up for “crimes” that
no one else who wasn’t named Biden would ever be. And with the next last administration
openly declaring legal war on “enemies,” who knows what they’d twist into the
next biggest criminal conspiracy?
I’d prefer that President Biden hadn’t spent the year
saying he wasn’t going to pardon his son, just because it leaves another door
open for Republicans to use for cover, like somehow it carried the same weight
as the tens of thousands of Trumpian lies told since his political emergence.
But a man can change his mind, can’t he, like TFG does
about abortion every time he speaks to a different group. Maybe it was only
recently that he realized in his gut that the next four years are going to be
perilous for himself and his family. (I predict that right now, Steve Bannon is
looking for a way to tie the president’s wife, Dr. Jill, to Dr. Fauci and burn
them both at the stake.)
What annoys me is the number of Democrats wringing
their hands over this. Instead of clutching their pearls, they should be going, “It’s about damned time.” I’m sick of the
Democrats having to follow rules that Republicans ignore. TFG was looking to
pardon his own damned self! You know he’d pardon his kids too. (Well, Ivanka.)
I already see conservative friends on Facebook going, “Oh, what about ‘No one’s above the law?’”
It’s as if the power of the pardon only applies to one side. If they weren’t complaining about TFG pardoning son-in-law Jared’s old man for fraud and sex trafficking charges, and then nominating him for Ambassador to France, then STFU about pardons now.
Pardon power comes with the turf and every president uses
it. TFG has already stated he intends to pardon all the January 6th
insurrectionists. What’s worse, ransacking the Capitol to prevent the legal
transition of power, or messing up your taxes (and then fixing them) and fudging
a gun ownership permit? One of these things is not like the other.
Republicans haven’t played nice in the past and we know
they’re going to be worse in the future. It doesn’t matter what Democrats do,
Republicans will oppose it out of reflex. When Biden pardoned the Thanksgiving turkey, I bet corners of the dark web accused him of
being soft on poultry.
I’m done with the Dems being expected to do the “honorable”
thing while the other side just laughs and does whatever it wants, usually to
enrich themselves or provoke their opposition. It they’re going to pursue a
policy that the president gets to do whatever he wants without fear of
prosecution, then the same goes for the sitting president. Not that he’s even
doing anything illegal; he’s doing exactly what every previous president has
done, other than the part about the pardonee being family. But that’s really
the inevitable result of pursuing purely political prosecutions. Hunter Biden
has zero effect on anything in this country. The only reason they even looked
at him was because they couldn’t find anything on his old man. Meanwhile, the crimes TFG
was engaging in had huge monetary and national security repercussions, as well as physical
harm done to others. No matter how people twist words, it’s just not the same.
President Biden ought to leave one more pardon for the end of his term, covering his wife, his other kid and grandchildren, his maids, landscapers, chefs, doctors, trainers, valets, mail carriers, Uber drivers, pet groomers, pizza guys, soda fountain guys, milkmen, and the lot. Call it the Pardon Me but Go Eff Yourself Act. Tell’em to stick that up their transition.
