Another Benefit of the Doubt

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON IS LIKE OTHER incontinent adolescents. He perpetually breezes along the edge of ethical limits counting on American generosity to grant him the benefit of doubt. Why does he do this? He does it because he gets away with it. It works. Americans accord our chief executive leeway because we are predisposed to think well of our country, our president, and ourselves.

During Clinton's troubles springing from his lies under oath to a civil jury and a federal grand jury, Clinton ordered military strikes against what was thought to be a chemical weapons plant, against terrorists in Afghanistan, and against targets in Iran. Though these coincidences caused raised eyebrows of suspicion that the actions where contrived to divert attention from impeachment problems, the extraordinary claim of venal motives for military actions requires extraordinary evidence.

At the time I wrote:

"The moral depravity and perversity required to intentionally employ American troops and risk military and civilian causalities for personal political redemption is so far beyond the capacities of any American president that absolute and thorough presumption of innocence must be granted."

Much of politics involves proverbial horse-trading. A senator trades a vote on a matter of importance to another state in exchange for a vote on matter of importance to his state. Negotiations between Congress and the President often require that both sides yield a little. Purity is not part of politics. Nonetheless there are grave and important decisions that we expect to be made independent of political calculation. We expect judgment and impartiality in decisions involve administration of justice.

The presidential power of clemency depends only on the discretion of the chief executive. On August 11, Clinton granted limited clemency to 16 members of the Armed Forces of Liberation (FALN), a Puerto Rican terrorist group supposedly responsible for 130 bombings that killed six people during the 1970s and 1980s. Although the 16 were convicted of robbery and weapons violations, because the offenses were considered part of a wider conspiracy, the 16 received long sentences.

There are honorable people who argue that given the passage of time perhaps some clemency should be offered. However, this was not the belief of the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, and the US Attorneys for Illinois and Connecticut who strongly opposed clemency. Newsweek has reported that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has taped these individuals saying they would return to violence if freed.

Despite the fact that Clinton pouts for personal forgiveness, he is parsimonious in his exercise of that virtue. According to Michael Kelly, "Clinton had used his presidential pardoning power all of two times. As governor of Arkansas, Clinton pardoned only seven inmates in his last nine years in office." The clemency offered here is out of character and only makes sense in the context of garnering Puerto Rican votes for his wife's upcoming Senate bid in New York.

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