-Caveat Lector- [This is hilarious!] <http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=85000642> Monday, February 26, 2001 12:35 p.m. EST ... The Quantity of Mercy A Los Angeles Times report floats a new explanation for Clinton's problem pardons: It seems the departing president was "driven to prove himself as compassionate as his predecessors." The paper reports: In the final months of his presidency, Clinton was open about his unhappiness with his clemency numbers. Stacked against the number of clemencies granted by Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, Clinton felt his then-274 was far too low. He wanted to go out looking magnanimous, he told aides. . . . Until now, congressional leaders and other critics have suggested that influence peddling, campaign contributions and electoral politics are behind Clinton's pardon of fugitive commodities broker Marc Rich and some of the other 175 clemencies he granted on his last day in office. But former White House aides, Justice Department officials and others close to the process depict the controversial clemencies instead as the products of an overwhelmed and leaky system hobbled by human failure. We suppose this is intended to be a mitigating explanation. But is it really? It hardly speaks well of Clinton that he issued scores of pardons because he "wanted to go out looking magnanimous"--that is, that he used this solemn privilege as if it were a personal indulgence. Many of Clinton's abuses of power over the years have seemed more impulsive than calculating, but that doesn't make them any less abusive. Besides, the L.A. Times suggests a false dichotomy: Either Clinton was trying to boost his "clemency numbers" or he was peddling influence. There's no reason he couldn't have been doing both. And a New York Times report bolsters the view that he was: In interviews with more than a dozen lawyers this week, a common ingredient became evident in the final group of pardons: access, either to the president or to the White House counsel's office. Without such entree, it was nearly impossible to argue the merits of clemency applications, many lawyers said. Assistance was given by a wide array of people who topped the "Friends of Bill" list: Harry Thomason, the television producer; Terry McAuliffe, the longtime Clinton fund-raiser and recently elected Democratic National Committee chairman; the Rev. Jesse Jackson; and Harold M. Ickes, the former White House deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to Mrs. Clinton. The New York Times notes that at the request of that moral paragon the Rev. Jackson, Clinton commuted the sentence of one Dorothy Rivers, "a former official of the minister's Operation PUSH, serving six years for embezzling more than $1 million in federal aid for homeless children." A 1996 Justice Department press release announcing Rivers's indictment notes that she was accused of spending more than half a million stolen dollars "in a variety of ways, including lavish parties, expensive clothes, fur coats, and political campaign contributions, and she is charged with evading federal income taxes on the stolen funds." In an oddly Clintonian twist, Rivers entered what is called an "Alford plea"--that is, she proclaimed her innocence while acknowledging that the evidence was sufficient to convict her. Legally, this is tantamount to a guilty plea. Yet Another Unpardonable Pardon Writing in the Washington Post, former prosecutor Breckinridge Wilcox blasts Clinton for pardoning Samuel Loring Morrison, a former Navy intelligence analyst, who provided secret satellite photographs to a defense journal: In early August, Jane's Defence Weekly provided Morison a check for $300 for "editorial contributions for July 1984." . . . At the same time, Morison had been seeking employment at Jane's, and the day after he mailed the photographs, he wrote a Jane's editor asking to be remembered "when next year's budget is put together or when there is a vacancy." . . . Simply put, Morison was acting with the basest of motives--stealing classified information to curry favor with a potential employer. Clintonian Chutzpah The Weekly Standard's Christopher Caldwell deconstructs Clinton's two-faced explanation of the Marc Rich pardon. "There is something almost majestic about Clinton's gumption here," Caldwell writes. "He's trying to convince Jews that he'd gone through the political gauntlet of the Rich controversy only out of loyalty to them, while simultaneously convincing the rest of the country that he'd agreed to the pardons only because the Jews (or the Israelis) had him over a barrel." The Washington Post's Web site reproduces 21 of the letters Clinton received urging the Rich pardon, including those from Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, and various Israeli officials. Rich himself issues a statement defending his own pardon as a humanitarian act. "I am happy and proud of my contributions to people and cultural and medical organizations in Israel, the United States and around the world," Rich declares. "It is unfortunate that these good deeds are now being described as calculating acts. I do not regret any of my actions. I am proud and happy to be able to bring a little joy and assistance to sick children, women and men less fortunate than myself." What a guy! Not surprisingly, Morris "Sandy" Weinberg, the lead prosecutor in the Rich case, disagrees. In a Washington Post op-ed, Weinberg writes that Clinton "arrived at his decision by a curious process that is antithetical to our system of justice." He notes that Clinton's own op-ed had asserted Rich couldn't get a fair trial in the U.S. and asks: "Does the former president--a law school graduate who chose dozens of men and women for the federal bench--truly believe that there isn't one federal judge in New York who could fairly determine the merits of the prosecution's case against that of the defense? That message is more alarming than the pardons themselves." Family Values Roger Clinton, half-brother of Bill, tells the Los Angeles Times he'd promised six of his friends that his brother would pardon them. Roger was "dejected" to learn on Jan. 21 that the pardons hadn't come through. "It sort of caused a rift," he tells the Times. "My feelings were hurt. I was a disaster." We're tempted to go for the cheap laugh at Roger's expense, but that would be unsporting. After all, it's not his fault he has a no-account brother. Meanwhile, the Florida Bar is investigation Hillary Clinton's brother Hugh for possible ethics violations in connection with his successful efforts to lobby Bill Clinton on behalf of Almon Glenn Braswell and Carlos Vignali, New York's Daily News reports. Today's Washington Post reports that Hugh Rodham "also approached White House attorneys advocating pardons for a couple convicted of making illegal campaign contributions to Democrats." Although Clinton did not grant those pardons, Rodham's work on their behalf "shows that he was more involved in the clemency process than previously known and that he took advantage of his frequent and easy access to the White House," the Post says. Splitsville for Bill and Hill? The New York Times' Maureen Dowd speculates that Pardongate is taking its toll on the Clintons' marriage. She quotes Dee Dee Myers, Bill's former press secretary, as saying: "This is the first time their political self-interest has diverged. . . . This is the first time in their married life when she is not the caboose or sidecar connected to his career. Maybe she will want to split off." Myers, does not, however, buy the idea that the Clintons' marriage is no more than a political partnership. "They have this weird, magnetic, psychic lock between them," she tells Dowd. "And I think she's hot for him." Hey, Dee Dee, really, thanks for sharing. There's no question that the scandals are taking their toll on Sen. Clinton's popularity in her "home state" of New York. A Zogby poll for the New York Post finds that 58% of New Yorkers don't believe Sen. Hillary Clinton when she claims she didn't know her brother was a paid pardon-pusher. Only 33% believe her. And just 22% think she's doing a good job. News Flash: Bush Wins A recount of "undervotes" in Miami-Dade County shows that Al Gore would have picked up just 49 additional votes if "dimpled chads" had been counted as votes--not enough to make Gore the winner in Florida. "If the standard had been more stringent, George W. Bush probably would have gained votes," adds USA Today, which conducted the ersatz count with the Miami Herald. In its news article about the findings, the Herald engages in some pro-Gore spin: If Secretary of State Katherine Harris had let South Florida counties complete manual recounts before certifying the results of last November's election, George W. Bush likely would have won the presidency outright, without weeks of indecision and political warfare, a review of Miami-Dade County's "undervote" ballots shows. In The Weekly Standard, Jennifer Braceras looks at the U.S. Civil Rights Commission's ludicrous hearings about supposed Florida voting irregularities. In one case, a voter testified that he was "suspicious" because a police car was parked outside a polling place. Turns out the cop was inside, voting. Another complaint was of a routine police checkpoint that was more than two miles away from any polling place. "The officers manning the checkpoint issued 18 citations, 12 of them to white motorists--hardly persuasive evidence of a scheme to intimidate non-whites," Braceras writes. Saddam's Bomb Iraq carried out a nuclear test in September 1989 deep beneath Lake Rezzaza, southwest of Baghdad, the Sunday Times of London reports, quoting two former senior scientists in the Iraqi nuclear program. The extensive Times report, which will also be aired on the BBC, includes diagrams and satellite photos of the test site. 'The Poster Child for Class-Action Abuse' After scrutiny in the Albuquerque Journal, a New Mexico lawyer and MassMutual life insurance have dropped plans for a class-action settlement that would have paid the lawyer, Gary Duncan, $5 million in cash, a $3 million life-insurance policy and annual payments of $250,000 for life. "The two MassMutual policyholders named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit would have shared $400,000, but 6 million other current and past policyholders represented by Duncan would have received nothing," the Journal reports. Overlawyered.com noticed this settlement and has background on class actions. Champagne Teddy Expenses covered by Sen. Edward Kennedy's campaign for re-election last year included "a $160 bottle of champagne at Borgo Il Poggiaccio, a 14th century resort in Tuscany, Italy," and "a $2,600 per month apartment on Beacon Street for Kennedy's father-in-law, retired Judge Edmund Reggie," reports the Boston Herald. ... Give Them a 'D' The headline of the week appears on a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece by one Domenico Maceri. It reads: "Look Beyonf Learning English." ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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