By Bob Gaydos
This week, in the category of "Wow, I didn't see that coming," we have President Joe Biden pardoning his son, Hunter.
Way to go, Joe. Finally, a Democrat realized it was suicide to bring a knife to a gun fight.
As has become predictable, Biden received all sorts of self-righteous criticism from some fellow Democrats and the so-called mainstream media for pardoning Hunter, after saying that he wouldn't. Democrats are supposed to be better than that, goes the argument. What about all those things he said about Trump? It just legitimizes all Trump's pardons, etcetera.
Nonsense.
There's not a father worth his salt in the world who would not, if he were also president of the most powerful country in the world, pardon his son while the opportunity still existed, especially considering the charges the son was convicted of and the extraordinary political and public pressure by Republicans over the years to harm the father by persecuting this son.
Not pardoning Hunter would have been unforgivable.
As the president said in announcing the pardon, "No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son -- and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter -- who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me -- and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."
Indeed.
The criticism of Biden, especially from the media, but also from some members of his own party, rests largely on the foolish belief that, even though Republicans have refused to play by the so-called rules of bipartisan government since about the time Ronald Reagan was elected, Democrats are still supposed to be the good guys and take the high ground, do the right, moral thing.
Look where that got them in 2016 and this year. Two well-qualified women candidates for president rejected by an electorate that preferred a lying racist, amoral buffoon. A buffoon, by the way, who is a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, twice-impeached, adulterous former president who went out of his way to do favors for family members and loyalists, be it pardons, lucrative financial deals or well-paid, low-expectation jobs.
So spare me the breast-beating. And spare me the holier than thou "reporting" on the pardon. Most of the stories say Hunter Biden was convicted on a gun charge or a firearms charge or weapons charge and for tax evasion. He was actually convicted of lying on a firearms application form about his drug addiction. He also pleaded guilty to failing to pay taxes that he later paid with penalties. Not uncommon occurrences and not a major threat to society. Also, obviously a result of his addiction to drugs and alcohol. Usually, these don't wind up being felony charges. But when one political party has it in for the other political party, sometimes unusual things happen.
President Biden addressed his remarks to "reasonable" persons. The few who existed in the Republican Party have left. The MAGA cultists who buy Trump's game, hook, line and sinker don't qualify. But I suspect that if some of those "just following the story" reporters would track down a few so-called "typical" Trump voters who were upset about the price of eggs, a lot of them would say they were OK with a father pardoning his son.
In this case an 82-year-old father with an extraordinary career of service to his country who has tragically lost another adult son to brain cancer and a young daughter and previous wife in an automobile accident.
And maybe, if those reporters want to chase a presidential family story, they can ask the president-in-waiting what qualifies Charles Kushner, father-in-law of Trump's daughter, Ivanka, for the position of ambassador to France.
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