Pardon Whom?

We’re down to the last six weeks before the changing of the guard and now facing one of the last awful parts of all presidencies: the pardons. The blogs and the political droners all have lots to say about who needs a pardon and who is likely to get one. There are said to be 2,300 applicants already for this honor (or dishonor, as the case may be). The Washington Post, last night, had a poll up where we brainless readers could provide our opinion as to whether Bush would in fact pardon those on their list of the top six: Edwin Edwards, Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, Michael Milken, Marion Jones, Ted Stevens, and Scooter Libby. I made up an opinion so that I could see what my fellow Americans had to think on this topic about which they have no information and it turns out that Scooter Libby is very high on the list of those whom we expect to get a pardon. A potential two-time winner: not only a commutation of sentence but also a pardon. What a guy.

Over at Slate, Dafna Linzer has a longer list of potential pardonees, as well as an estimate of their probable success in winning Bush’s heart. Her list is long enough that it needs to be divided into six categories including Sports Felons, Texas Felons, Bush Team Felons, Congressional Felons, Team Abramoff Felons, and White Collar Felons (including Martha Stewart). (Regardless of category, there are an awful lot of Republicans on this list.)

With respect to the success of all these requests, my position is largely that of Luke 12:48: For to whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. And I don’t think that includes asking for a pardon when one has been convicted of a crime. The idea that Michael Milken will be pardoned (considered a very good possibility by Linzer) is a drag upon my spirit. To err is human; to forgive, divine; to forget, impossible. I don’t want Milken forgetting what he did or being able to pretend it never happened, and I’d just as soon nobody else forgot or pretended either.

However, with all this talk of political felons and potential felons (such as all the torture planners and law debasers in this administration) being pardoned, there is one felon not much discussed in the U.S. but of great interest to Canadians. Google ‘Conrad Black’ ‘presidential pardon,’ and you get the usual billion links, the first page of which is all Canadian sources. And that is because U.S. residents and citizens would mostly be saying, ‘Conrad who?’ Canadians, would not. They know Conrad well. He’s a former Canadian business mogul from Winnipeg, the CEO of Hollinger International which controlled newspapers in Canada and all over the world (including many U.S. community newspapers).

What the Canadians have against Conrad (and why they are interested in his pardon request) is not that he was rich and powerful, nor that he was found guilty in the U.S. in 2007 of using very large amounts of the company’s funds for his personal use, but rather that, in 1992, he gave up his Canadian citizenship in order to get a seat/title in the U.K.’s House of Lords. (Canadian citizens may not hold titles in another country.) And insulted Canada and Canadians on his way out. Eric Reguly wrote in The Times, "The great man fled his native Canada for Britain. He couldn’t wait to leave, he said, because Canada was turning into a Third World dump run by raving socialists." He is Conrad Black in Canada, but in England, he is Baron Black of Crossharbour. Nevertheless, he is currently residing in a U.S. prison (in Florida) serving a 7-year sentence that was accompanied by a $6 million fine. My sense of talking to Canadians is that they are okay with him being in the U.S., but prefer it to be without the pardon.

So here’s another difference between Canadians and Americans that I wouldn’t know about if I didn’t live here. The Canadians couldn’t care less about Scooter Libby; by contrast, the Americans couldn’t care less about Conrad Black. Caught in between, my advice is pardon none of them, none of the rich and famous and well-placed: God will recognize his own.