EVEN AFTER leaving office, former President Bill Clinton is dogged by scandals. Now, Congress and the media are investigating several pardons Clinton gave, citing possible political and criminal motivations behind them.
Many Republican leaders in Congress have lashed out at Clinton. In addition, some such as Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) have brought up the prospect of yet another Clinton impeachment ("Republicans Expand Clinton Inquiry," Associated Press, Feb. 14).
Right now, the House of Representatives and the Senate are launching their own investigations into the ex-president. But it is not Clinton's actions that are unprecedented; it is the fervor and intensity of the Republicans over dishonest pardons.
Take the case of former President George Bush. His pardons rival Clinton's in illegitimacy. But there was no significant outrage, no media frenzy, and no Congressional investigations back in 1992 like there are now.
During the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan presidency, then-Vice President Bush allegedly knew of U.S. arms being sold to Iran, with the proceeds diverted illegally to rebel forces in Nicaragua. This scandal, which dogged the final years of Reagan's term, resulted in the investigation by Independent Counsel Lawrence Welsh, undertaken during the years of Bush's presidency.
By the end of Bush's term in office, 14 aides in the Reagan administration were charged with crimes ranging from perjury to obstruction of justice. Two aides, former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Chief of the Latin American division of the CIA Duane Clarridge, were scheduled to be tried in January and March of 1993, respectively.
On Christmas Eve, 1992, Bush pardoned Clarridge and Weinberger, as well as four already-convicted members of the Iran-Contra scandal. This was just two weeks before Weinberger was to go to trial. Bush was scheduled to testify in this case and still was being investigated actively by the independent counsel. The final independent counsel report was extremely critical of these pardons, calling them "unprecedented," and saying that the inability of Walsh to probe any further left the investigation into Bush "regrettably incomplete." So where was the public outrage on those pardons?
On Jan. 18, 1993, Bush pardoned Aslan Adam, a convicted Pakistani heroin dealer and federal prisoner. Adam, who was serving a 55-year sentence, was only one of three federal prisoners pardoned by Bush during his term in office. Bush and the Justice Department declined to comment on Adam's pardon, and there is speculation that there were ties between Adam and the CIA, of which Bush was the former director. But Congress and the media failed to delve into that pardon.
Two years prior to this, Bush pardoned Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch. Bosch was serving a prison term for bombing a Cubana airliner in 1976 and a bazooka attack on a freighter in Miami harbor. Many conservative Cuban-American refugees in Florida had lobbied for the release of Bosch, led by none other than then-Florida Commerce Secretary Jeb Bush, the son of former President Bush.
The younger Bush would appreciate this pardon later. Four years later, during Jeb Bush's run for governor, he received 74 percent of the Cuban-American vote. Yet when Clinton pardoned the Puerto Rican terrorists in 1999, when there were allegations that it helped Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, this prompted outrage. In Bush's case, there wasn't even a peep from the media or Congress.
Bush's pardons raise many of the same questions and concerns that Clinton's do. But unlike in the case of Clinton, Bush received no attention from the media and Congress. Republicans and Democrats alike remained silent on the pardons given out during the Bush years.
None of this is meant to condone what Clinton has done. If indeed Clinton distributed pardons on the basis of campaign contributions and not on merit, then it is indefensible. But Republicans who attack Clinton while blatantly ignoring their last president's actions are unbelievably hypocritical.
(Brian Cook is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at bcook@cavalierdaily.com.)
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