The Rich pardon
by Joe Farah
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
Some people in Congress are shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- to find out that money may have been buying personal favors in the Clinton White House.
Therefore, Congress is set to hold investigative hearings this week into the possibility of Clinton administration corruption.
I know what you are thinking. Where were these guys when we needed them? Well, it gets worse.
The hearings to be held in the House and Senate are to focus on Clinton's 11th-hour pardon of fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich.
There's no doubt Rich is a scoundrel. He fled the country and renounced his citizenship when faced with a 65-count indictment for conspiracy, tax evasion and trading with the enemy. He was convicted in absentia on 51 counts.
It also appears obvious that Clinton pardoned Rich as a quid pro quo for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions funneled to Hillary Clinton, Al Gore and other Democratic Party candidates.
I suppose I should be thankful that some members of Congress have awakened finally to the depths of blatant Clinton administration corruption. But I can't help feeling that these inquiries are way too little, way too late.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is leading one of the probes. Think about that irony. Specter bent over backwards, citing Scottish law, in his intellectual and legal gymnastics attempting to explain why he was voting against convicting Clinton during the impeachment trial.
His vote came after his wife got an appointment to the Clinton administration. And he's going to judge whether Clinton took a bribe to pardon Rich?
Many of us out here in America -- outside of Washington, D.C. -- couldn't understand why the Congress failed to investigate Clinton administration corruption adequately during the last eight years. It was as if Congress had abdicated its oversight role and forgotten that it represented, at least, a co-equal branch of government with the executive -- and, more importantly, the people's voice in the federal system.
It seems like odd timing to begin worrying about Clinton now that he's gone.
And bribery will be a tough case to make -- no matter how obvious it appears to any of us. If Congress couldn't convict Clinton on perjury during impeachment, does anyone really expect anything but some hot air from these hearings?
Furthermore, as much as I hate to say it, the Constitution does give the president wide berth on the issue of pardons. There's no need for approval by Congress or anyone else.
You see, Congress had its chance. Most members -- even in the Senate -- knew what Clinton was when they voted on impeachment. They knew he was corrupt. They knew he was a criminal. They knew he had repeatedly broken the public trust. They knew he had no respect for the law. They knew he believed only in himself and what was good for Bill Clinton. They knew he had no scruples, no conscience, no ethics, no morality. They knew if he got away with perjury and much more serious crimes for which he wasn't impeached, that he would continue his criminal escapades.
Well, guess what? Clinton did just that. And the Rich pardon was only the latest insult added to many injuries Bill Clinton inflicted on America's body politic.
I wish Congress well in investigating the Rich affair. The American public does deserve to know the truth. The problem is that Congress has been woefully ineffective in such half-hearted investigations during the Clinton years. So, my hopes that justice will be served and that the public will be informed are somewhat dim, to say the least.
I'm just trying to figure out where all this outrage is coming from at this late date. Where was the outrage when Clinton was selling national security down the drain for Chinese political campaign contributions? Don't they get it? After eight years, don't these people understand Clinton would sell anything that wasn't nailed down to anyone with money in his hand?
Like any other red-blooded American, I'd like to see Marc Rich pay for his crimes. But that's not going to happen. More importantly, I'd like to see Bill Clinton -- and all those around him who were complicit in their guilt -- pay for the pattern of official criminal activity of the last eight years.
Too bad, but I just don't think Congress has the stomach for it.
