A little exercise in alternative history.
What if Gerald Ford had not pardoned Nixon, and that presidential crook had done some hard time? What lessons did Ford’s deputies, Cheney and Rumsfeld, learn from that little episode and what would they have learned, instead, had Nixon gone to jail. And, oddly enough, given the widespread notion now that presidential wrongdoing should be considered a mere peccadillo, it is more likely than not that without that pardon Nixon would have gone on trial and would have been convicted. Moreover, it is more likely than not that Judge Sirica would have sent him to jail. Sure, most of Nixon’s co-conspirators went to jail, but Nixon didn’t.
Would Nixon’s alternative fate have given Ronald Reagan and his henchmen pause before they embarked on the arms sales to Iran?
What if the perpetrators of that criminal enterprise had done hard time, including, but not limited to, the then vice-president, who was able to cover up his own involvement by, among other things, pardoning the guy who had the goods on him? Sure, some of the folks involved were inconvenienced by having to go to trial, but none went to prison. Those that were not freed by virtue of strained legal arguments adopted by conservative judges were pardoned.
Would their alternative fate have caused Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Yoo, Mukasey, Addington, and their co-conspirators to think twice (or even once?) before committing their war crimes?
It is troubling to hear Obama tell us that no one is above the law while, apparently, being prepared to demonstrate that in fact some people are above the law. Will Obama complete the slide into total non-accountability. Will these criminals, who committed far more heinous crimes than their predecessors, not even be inconvenienced by having to go on trial. Will their deeds never even by fully exposed?
It does seem clear that each time one of these events take place the perpetrators go free and their successors take away the lesson that there are no consequences for those who commit high level crimes. Each episode begets ever worse crimes. As bad as he was, it is hard to believe that Nixon would have openly adopted a torture regimen as official government policy.
It is not too much of a stretch to say that Ford’s pardon of Nixon led to the torture at Abu Ghraib. If Obama lets this opportunity to re-establish the rule of law pass, he will have green lighted the next, inevitable right wing administration to commit even worse crimes. Yes, I know it’s hard to imagine even worse crimes, but I remember that, in my innocence, I really believed we could never do worse than Nixon.
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