Beg Pardon, Senator?

Sen. Russ Feingold--a man who crafted election reform legislation that the President-elect pissed on when trouncing his co-sponsor--writing in the abhorrent and unreadable (except for Camille Paglia) Salon:

If President Bush were to pardon key individuals involved in the misdeeds of his administration, from warrantless wiretapping to torture to the firing of U.S. attorneys for political reasons, the courts would be unable to address criminality, or pass judgment on the legality of some of the president's worst abuses. Issuing such pardons now would be particularly egregious, since voters just issued such a strong condemnation of the Bush administration at the ballot box. There is nothing to prevent President Bush from using the pardon in such a short-sighted and self-serving manner -- except, perhaps, public pressure that may itself be a window on the judgment of history. Everyone who can exert that pressure, from members of Congress to the press and the public, should express their views on whether it would be appropriate for President Bush to use his pardon power in this way.

You see how Feingold channels the far left moonbats by pronouncing that the president and his staff are guilty of crimes when they've never been charged and facts are scarce? Warantless wiretapping is a misnomer but is playing right into the kooks and nutroots and the torture line has them creaming their jeans.

It goes without saying--at least to sane folks--that if crimes had been committed, they will be investigated. The president has some latitude and his decisions post-9/11 will be left to historians to decide.

But wait, it gets better:

Controversial pardons are nothing new, of course. President Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, which was a source of furious national debate, is perhaps the most famous of these. More recently, President Clinton issued a series of last-minute pardons that were highly criticized. Yet the power can also be used to show mercy -- Clinton used the pardon power a number of times to lessen the impact of draconian mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenders.

See how Feingold brushes off Clinton's pardons? Good try, Senator but there's essentially no one that Bush could pardon that would top old Slick Willy. He pardoned Puerto Rican terrorists to help his wife gain votes in her first campaign for Senator, a member of another terrorist organization--the Weather Underground--and pardoned a fugitive--Mark Rich--who should have been tried and jailed. Note Feingold doesn't mention either of these because it would just harsh his mellow and make his point look as baseless as it actually is.

Feingold plays fast and loose and he's one of the guys that McCain found suitable to reach across the aisle to when writing McCain-Feingold. No wonder McCain lost.