Letter to the Editor
On the day of President Ford's death people in the news are praising his decision to pardon Nixon saying that Ford "Healed the nations woulds and brought Americans together after Watergate". I am not one of those who share that opinion. Nixon broke the law. He abused his power as president for his own personal gain. By pardoning Nixon he cheated America out of justice and a change to show the world the even the president isn't above the law. Instead America is left with a legacy the high ranking officials who break the law will be pardoned "for the good of the nation".
I wonder if we would be Iraq today and our current elected officials would flaunt the law the way they are today if Nixon had faced justice. We will never know if Ford was chosen because he made a promise to pardon Nixon if he was given the job. I believe that it was wrong for an unelected president to pardon the person who appointed him. Elected officials who break the law should face justice and I hope that we don't see justice cheated again by presidential pardons.
Posted by marc at December 27, 2006 02:39 PMFirst a nit: I think you meant to write 'flout', not 'flaunt'. Though the latter has been misused in place of the former to the extent it is becoming accepted as a synonym, they are more properly used almost as opposites. A person who flaunts something is typically proud of it, like Pamela Anderson flaunting her cleavage.
Similar arguments were made against Pardons granted by President's Johnson and Carter. If we can accept mass pardons for treason and desertion in order to heal our nations wounds can we not also accept pardoning a crook to be able to get on with the business of governing the nation?
The worse aspect of the pardon is that it allowed
many other abuses, only now being revealed as Nixon's tapes and records are published, to remain secret for decades.
--
FF