Presidential Pardon in a World Gone Mad

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So let us begin with the “world gone mad” part. David Daleiden, the man behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos, has been indicted by a grand jury in Texas. He made the mistake of gathering secret footage of Planned Parenthood doing appalling things with the bodies of little boys and girls. If he had only had the good sense to run a sting operation on the executives of Tyson Foods, demonstrating abusive treatment of chickens, he could be writing his acceptance speech for the Pulitzer now.World Gone Mad

This last August, when the videos were first dropping, I argued that every presidential candidate needed to be asked whether or not he or she would commit to awarding David Daleiden the Medal of Freedom. Sometime after that I had the opportunity to ask Mike Huckabee if he would be willing to do that, and he said it was a good idea. That question is still a good one, is obviously necessary, and needs to be renewed.

But now the stakes are raised — because Planned Parenthood has opted for the bang instead of the whimper — and so we have the perfect opportunity to call and raise them a couple hundred. The question for each of the Republican candidates over the course of this next week needs to be this one. “If elected, would you be willing to sign a presidential pardon for David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt?”

Before anybody rushes to comment, I am perfectly aware of the fact that David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were indicted in Texas, and that the power of presidential pardons only applies at the federal level. But the question is still relevant. Planned Parenthood has sued the Center for Medical Progress in federal court in California. And with regard to the Texas case, cases at the state level can easily wend their way into the federal system on appeal. So the question assumes the right of a president to pardon at a certain level, and asks for a commitment to pardon the instant it reaches that level.

If ever there was a perfect opportunity to ask this question, it is now. The cluster of remaining candidates are in a hot campaign in Iowa. Iowa is an evangelical stronghold, and all the candidates are going to be there a lot, in multiple venues, for the next week. There will be many opportunities to ask this question. And if any one of the candidates answers the question well, and also directly, there will be a resultant need for reporters to ask the other candidates as well. Some will promise from principle and others from opportunism. But the point is to get them to promise it.

Make no mistake. A presidential pardon for Daleiden and Merritt would be a big deal, an instance of smashmouth presidential politics. Cruz would be ideally suited to address it. It really would be news, and here is why. Such a promise would be made before the trial, which means that a candidate for president would be implicitly acknowledging that our court system has been thoroughly corrupted.

This is because if Daleiden and Merritt were to be convicted, it is manifestly obvious that they would be political prisoners. They would have been convicted of buying human organs, while Planned Parenthood was simultaneously exonerated from the charge of selling them. Heads I win, tails you lose.

There is an added bonus. Such a question would also create  the prospect of Hillary Clinton denouncing the idea, which would create the chance of asking her whether presidential pardons needed to be reserved for cases like that of Marc Rich.

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Rob Steele
Rob Steele
8 years ago

Great idea.

jigawatt
jigawatt
8 years ago

They would have been convicted of buying human organs

I think the actual charge was they SAID that they had the right permissions to buy human organs (when they actually didn’t), not that they actually bought any. Oh silly me, I mean FOETEUAL organs since the children weren’t human yet.

PerfectHold
PerfectHold
8 years ago

“call and raise” = display of your gambling novicitude

JH
JH
8 years ago

Pastor Wilson, thank you for the perspective on this. The image you attached to this article was perfectly fitting, and my family appreciates your wisdom and insight. I hope someone has the fortitude and clarity of mind to ask the questions you proposed. May the Lord continue to bless you and yours.

Tom©
Tom©
8 years ago

Well, at least there’s no question. It was the video.

Bike bubba
8 years ago

The interesting thing to me is what government records they would have had access to. Usually when an entity wants to preserve records, they isolate themselves so that parties to a case do not have access. So unless the prosecutor stored his records, say, on Hilliary’s email server, there’s no way the defendants could have done this. The only way out of this one for the prosecutor is to either provide evidence of a Watergate style break-in, or argue that the editing of the films accounts to what he claims. But there are other charges for falsifying evidence like perjury,… Read more »

Nathan Tuggy
Nathan Tuggy
8 years ago
Reply to  Bike bubba

The government records they allegedly manipulated were drivers’ licenses, in order to get into PP under fake names. Surely a heinous evil.

Bike bubba
8 years ago
Reply to  Nathan Tuggy

California drivers’ licenses. So now Texas gets to enforce California law?

I also look forward to see her (oops, it is a she) record of prosecuting holders of fake IDs in Houston’s colleges and universities, as well as illegal immigrants using the same. By the way, Houston is unofficially but effectively a sanctuary city, so don’t spend too long looking.

ashv
ashv
8 years ago

There is no virtue in being a conservative when there is no virtue left to conserve.

It’s time to focus on restoration, not conservation.

Andrew Kelly
Andrew Kelly
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

We have many good things worth conserving. We have also lost many good things that need to be restored. This isn’t either/or.

ashv
ashv
8 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Kelly

What’s left in the USA system that’s worth keeping? When a house has had termites for long enough, it’s not sufficient to kill the termites. The whole thing has to come down and be rebuilt properly.

hillbillygeek
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

Ashv: revolution is a romantic notion, but seldom works out well. Ask Robespierre.

ashv
ashv
8 years ago
Reply to  hillbillygeek

Revolution is burning down a house with the occupants inside. I merely think we should start laying in supplies and drawing up plans for a better dwelling… and waste as little energy as possible on the old structure.

JohnM
JohnM
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

I’ve got a mansion, just over the hilltop, in that bright land where I’ll never grow old. :) In the meantime, following your analogy, even if you believe the current house is in hopeless condition it’s what we’ve got, as opposed to nothing and exposure to the elements. I note you did say “waste as little energy as possible on the old structure”, I hope that’s as opposed to spend no energy at all on it while we’re drawing up plans, because plans won’t keep us warm and dry, and I still see that I still have a roof and… Read more »

hillbillygeek
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

Problem is, not just gubbmint, but the vast unelected bureaucracy (admittedly this is part of government) and the educational system.

ashv
ashv
8 years ago
Reply to  hillbillygeek

Yes, that’s why I say “system” and not just “elected officials”, since most of the actual power is shared between the permanent government (bureaucracy) and academia.

Jack Bradley
Jack Bradley
8 years ago

B-rilliant, Douglas! Perfect strategy.

timothy
timothy
8 years ago

These people kill babies and they like it. There is no reluctance about it. They enjoy killing for killing’s sake. Being cowards, they do not have the courage to announce it, yet. They will only do so when men neuter their moral sense to accommodate them. Do not be one of those men.

Reformed Roy
Reformed Roy
8 years ago
Reply to  timothy

“These people kill babies and they like it.”

I believe this is true. Once viewed in that context, where do we go?

How many care that the emperor has no clothes?

timothy
timothy
8 years ago
Reply to  Reformed Roy

If nobody cared, would it matter? Should it? As for me and my house…..

Ben
Ben
8 years ago

Demand for abortion would be far lower without the military/security/prison-rape state so beloved by neocons like Cruz and Rubio. PP might not exist at all.

If you cherish violence and murder of one kind, don’t be surprised when it manifests itself in other not-so-agreeable ways.

ashv
ashv
8 years ago
Reply to  Ben

Where is the evidence for this?

Ben
Ben
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

The military/security/prison-rape complex destroys families, kills many men, and takes many others out of productive society. I don’t think it should take a lot of effort to put the pieces together from there.

JohnM
JohnM
8 years ago
Reply to  Ben

Not only where – where is the evidence, but what – what in blue blazes is a “military/security/prison-rape state”?

Christopher Casey
Christopher Casey
8 years ago
Reply to  JohnM

That’s Bens dystopian view of the U.S.

Ben
Ben
8 years ago
Reply to  JohnM

It is a congloberation of corporate, media, academic, and faux-religious classes who work in tandem with politicians and their enforcement wing (military, police, prisons) to expropriate from the citizenry. The corporations who build weapons and spy gadgets, operate and maintain prisons, and extract natural resources from “enemy” countries are a part of it. The thought-movers who scaremonger and propagandize 100 IQ Joe Everyman into war after war are a part of it. The conservative Christian cautionists who fear freedom to the point of wanting pot-smokers caged and raped are also a part of it.

JohnM
JohnM
8 years ago
Reply to  Ben

I see. Well, not all parts of that are inherently tied together. Say we take pot out of the equation. Do you still care? I’ve noticed there is a subset of Libertarians who are all about decriminalizing marijuana, and not much else. Just wondering if you’re one of them. Also, what is the answer to ashv’s question.

Malachi
Malachi
8 years ago
Reply to  JohnM

He lost me at “congloberation”…

jillybean
jillybean
8 years ago
Reply to  Ben

Ben, in all my time here, I have never encountered a writer who suggested pot smokers should be locked up. I agree with you that the growth industry in prisons is a bad thing. I have been disheartened to find prison guards’ unions fighting for longer mandatory minimums.

ashv
ashv
8 years ago
Reply to  Ben

Humour me. How’s this tied to abortion?

Ben
Ben
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

Because economic destruction and fatherlessness causes more unwanted pregnancies.

ashv
ashv
8 years ago
Reply to  Ben

OK, supposing that’s true, how is fatherlessness the fault of your “complex” rather than of poor legal/social incentives to stable family formation?

Ben
Ben
8 years ago
Reply to  ashv

See Tim’s answer above.

Tim Stephenson
Tim Stephenson
8 years ago
Reply to  Ben

Um… it would seem that fatherlessness kinda eliminates the need for abortion… Oh. Growing up with no dad present prompts one to father more children indiscriminately or for a girl to seek attention inappropriately resulting in pregnancy?

Bike bubba
8 years ago
Reply to  Ben

Which is why the abortion rate has declined as we’ve incarcerated more criminals? Since the mid seventies and early eighties, the number of abortions has dropped by about a third (from 1.5 million to about 1 million annually) while the number of incarcerated criminals has skyrocketed and the population has grown by about 50%.

Sorry, Ben, but your correlation is exactly wrong to make that point. What causes abortion is the same thing that causes crime; sex outside of marriage leading to conception outside of marriage.

ME
ME
8 years ago

Actually Ben Carson has came very close to addressing all those questions on FB.

Here is one, “I was saddened by yesterday’s Harris County Grand Jury decision to absolve Planned Parenthood from any misconduct. I was equally shocked
that they instead decided to indict the individuals that exposed Planned
Parenthood’s heinous and illegal activities. As President, I will use
the full weight of this office to not only cut off all federal funding
for this organization, but also prosecute them for crimes against unborn
children.”

Reformed Brother
Reformed Brother
8 years ago
drgraphics
drgraphics
8 years ago

I’m petitioning the government to end these criminal proceedings. I know it’s likely a futile gesture, and the Obama Administration does not technically have the authority to end these proceedings, but our government has committed to respond to any petition that receives 100,000 signatures. I have until February 27, 2016 to get it done.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/end-criminal-proceedings-against-david-daleiden-and-sandra-merritt-center-medical-progress