When is a Presidential pardon not a pardon? If the President who grants it happens to be a Clinton.
Blue Crab, LacksMind and JammieWearingFool are a few of the many who would like to further undermine the U.S. Constitution, and are now arguing that those who have received a Presidential Pardon should no longer have the right of free speech. To the right, making political donations is speech.
Jake Tapper reported today that three recipients of "pardons issued by former President Clinton in January 2001 have donated thousands of dollars to the presidential campaign of his wife." The total amount donated by the three was $5,300 which as Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson implied is not a huge deal, considering that the campaign has "raised over $65 million from over 200,000 people." The outrage from the right is as palpable as it is hypocritical:
Of course, it's dismissed as not being illegal, but this stinks to high heaven and is so typical of the sleazebag Clintons.. JammieFool
Hillary is taking large campaign donations from the controversial pardons doled out by her husband.
It almost looks like maybe they are paying her in thanks/reward/agreement for the shady pardons Mr. Clinton granted them when he was President.
Shit. Who am I kidding with that “almost looks like” thrown in there — that’s exactly what it looks like... UrbanGroundsn any case add this to the Hsu scandals among other fund raising “questions” and you get what would be - if she we’re a republican - a completely FUBAR campaign [sic, and sicker]... Lacksmind
Yet those people obviously felt that they owed something to the Clintons, did they not? It just adds another odor to the overall scent of corruption that seems to hang around the Clintons... BlueCrab
More foolish spewing is easily found at the invaluable memeorandum
Lacksmind wondered if a Republican would have been treated differently. The answer is of course Yes. Without looking at close to half of those pardoned by George H.W. Bush, I could find four people who donated far more than $5,300 to the campaign of George W. Bush. (Ricvhard Norris Ware, Garth Hancock, Robert E. Barhill, Robert G. Price.) As of June 29, 2007 George W. Bush has pardoned 113 people. Neither his wife nor any of his daughters are running for office, but when I looked at 25 of those, I quickly found four who had given to Republicans. (David B. McCall, Charles E. Hamilton, Billie Curtis Moore, Dale C. Critz) Not one of the 25 had given to Democrats. I found four donors when I looked at 25 pardonees of George W. When the records of all 177 of Bill Clinton's pardonees were examined, 3 donors were found.
The difference is pretty obvious: A criminal pardoned by a Bush retains his freedom of speech, one pardoned by a Clinton does not.
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