Coins and Connections and Pardon

This week _____ got all full of himself—fuller?—and went all pardon-y. It’s what people who’ve conned an entire political party do, you know. And who did he pardon, you ask?

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich who tried to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder, among other things; and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, appointed to that post by then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Obama and Giuliani related pardons? Interesting.

The Constitution—which _____ apparently defends when it comes to pardons and ignores at every other turn—gives the president power “to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” Sadly, or happily, he can’t pardon himself, though you know he was gonna try. And while most presidents use their pardon power in the interests of mercy, not for prominent or political bedfellows or well-connected friends or cronies of the president himself, _____ uses it for the exact opposite reasons; and we know this because he’s done it before …

He granted clemency have to former Arizona Sheriff, and unrepentant anti-immigrant racist,  Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt-of-court; he pardoned conservative asshat Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty to violating campaign-finance laws; and he pardoned several members of the U.S. military, including three service members accused or convicted of war crimes.

And now Blagojevich and Kerik.

 Rod Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 of several counts of corruption, including trying to sell Obama’s vacant Senate post to Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. in exchange for $1.5 million in donations; he also wanted  Obama insiders to lean on wealthy financiers to bankroll a nonprofit advocacy group for Blagojevich to run at a generous salary. When Children's Memorial Hospital lobbied Blagojevich to raise state reimbursement rates for pediatric specialists, he withheld the $8 million funding increase in an effort to get the CEO of the hospital to hold a $25,000 fundraiser.

He withheld funds to get something? Where have I heard that before?

In November 2008, when the General Assembly voted to extend a subsidy from Illinois casinos to horse-racing tracks, Maywood Park horse-racing track owner John Johnston urged a Blagojevich associate to have the governor sign the bill. Blagojevich said he’d sign it … for a $100,000 donation from Johnston.

That’s the case of Blagojevich; a corrupt politician selling deals and Senate seats to enrich himself. Blagojevich is the exact kind of swamp dweller _____ promised to remove from politics and now he’s pardoned him.

Now for Kerik; he  was sentenced to four years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to tax fraud and making false statements. Among other actions, he admitted to speaking to city regulators on behalf of a contractor who had done renovations on his apartment for free. Kerik was released in 2013, and now he’s been pardoned and made to look like he never committed a crime because … Giuliani.

_____ has also pardoned Ed DeBartolo, a former owner of the San Francisco 49ers, who pleaded guilty in 1998 to concealing an extortion attempt by former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards. And while _____ also commuted sentences for two women convicted of drug offenses, most of his pardons were for wealthy people, friends of friends, who lied and cheated and stole from others.

Basically, street criminals with coins and connections.

_____’s exercise of the pardon power has been a joke, and clearly self-serving and blatantly political. It’s all part of his revenge tour after being impeached, where he wants to show everyone that he will do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and no one, least of all the GOP Cowards will even try to stop him.

So, for you Deplorables, is this what you wanted? _____ to drain the swamp by literally freeing the swamp dwellers; _____to pardon and release criminals cronies and friends of cronies? _____helping the rich, who lied and cheated and stole, get out of jail? _____ saying he was investigating Biden because he cared about corruption?

Asking for a country on the verge of extinction.