From: sbooth@lonestar.utsa.edu (Simon E. Booth)
Subject: Re: Pardon Amy Fisher! (other pardon surprises, too!)
Organization: University of Texas at San Antonio
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 05:06:23 GMT

In article <1993Jan12.175732.1656@eskimo.com> kurt@eskimo.com (Kurt Cockrum) writes:
>[note crosspostings -- kurt]
>
>Andrew Bulhak (sloth@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au) wrote:
>: [ Article crossposted from alt.conspiracy,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.bush,alt.president.clinton ]
>: [ Author was Randall Rhea ]
>: [ Posted on 6 Jan 93 00:32:19 GMT ]
>:
>:
>: I am in total agreement with Bush's pardon of Weinberger, and his reasons
>: for the pardon.  Now Bush should take it one step further with the
>: case that has received more media attention than Iran-Contra.
>:
>: As George Bush's final act in office, I think he should pardon Amy
>: Fisher.
>[...]
>
>And while he's at it, he could pardon Jeff Dahmer, and the
>peice de resistance, a posthumous pardon of Westley Allan Dodd.
>That would sure burn a lot of britches!  He's got till the 21st,
>doesn't he?  Still lots of time for surprises!
>
>Speaking of last-minute abuses of power, the President and VP could
>rob a bank together.  Then, after the act was pulled off (successfully,
>we might add -- our guys aren't dummies!), the Prexy pardons the VP
>and then resigns.  The VP, now Prexy (with a clean slate, since he was
>just pardoned) now pardons the former Prexy and both immediately hop a
>Concorde to Geneva with the swag!
>
>Why stop there?  In theory, if the president could pardon just ONE
>prisoner or suspected criminal, he could pardon them *ALL*, couldn't
>he?  Would that stick or would the courts find a work-around in time?
>Question in practical terms would be, could the prexy pull this off
>successfully before somebody else put the "crazy-president-with-
>red-button" plans into effect and had him bundled off to the rubber
>St. Elizabeth's with 10 grams of Haldol in his forebrain?
>
>Another thing he could try is to sell the "football" to Mouammar Khadafi
>in return for a blow job wherever, whenever he wants, for the rest of
>his life.  He should still not forget to pardon himself or he'll be in
>deep shit!
>
>Maybe he'll declare a national state of emergency on the 20th, declare
>martial law, suspend the constitution, and put all those secret
>executive orders into effect!  He could even legalize hem
Unless I'm mistaken, theoretically the president could declare martial law
and thus block the swearing in of the new president, and of course effectively
bypass the election of the previous November.  He could even do this during
November to bog down the election itself.

(note: I'm not advocating that Bush or any other president try anything like
this.  Just an interesting thought excercise of 'unorthodox' methods of
holding onto power past the legitimate end of his administration).

Here's an interesting scenario: The President, of course is commander in chief
of the military, so what would happedisrupt the ceremony (say by blocking
traffic and keeping them from reaching the White House).  The troops would
theoretically obey the outgoing president, but what would happen is by some
chance the President-elect was able to take the oath of office.

Now, would this nullify the actioally, who is the 'real' president?)?

BTW- I hope this never happens in real life, so no flames.
Like I said, it's an interesting thought experiment.

Simon

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