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Why Biden’s “surprising” action wasn’t the least bit

By Ed Goldman

It’s clear that those professing shock, indignation and dyspepsia—over Joe Biden’s presidential pardon of his son Hunter—have never been the leader of the free world. Yet it’s hard for me to believe that any of them has ever been (or even known) a parent.

Yes, this would include everyone.

When “Scranton Joe”—the noted plagiarist, dental-implant advocate and hair-transplant victim—first said he’d never pardon his son, I laughed and said to anyone who’d listen, “Oh, of course he will.” I’m not psychic, just sensate. And Biden loves his kid. Parental love has been around for a few million years, give or take a week.

As for those saying this will somehow taint the Democratic Party, let’s examine a few of the fears giving fodder to indignant talk-show panels (whose members are paid per indignation, I understand):

1. “This will give President-Elect Donald J. Trump the cover he needs to pardon every miscreant within his purview, including the insurrectionists of January 6, 2021.” Oh, grow up. Does anyone think Trump requires “cover” to do whatever the hell he wants? He has not only the powers of his own office but also the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Supreme Court, and possibly your first-born child and plumbing contractor in his pocket.
2. “Biden will make it difficult for the Democrats in the coming years.” Seriously? Didn’t he already do that by refusing to get out of the presidential campaign as it became clear, even before his “debate” with Trump—in which he appeared to be auditioning for a reboot of “Night of the Living Dead”—that he no longer cared about his party, the country and his prescribed medications? How about when he couldn’t shut his unfiltered mouth about Trump’s supporters being “garbage” (his successful attempt to one-up Hillary Clinton’s remark about those same people being “deplorables,” which really worked out well for her)? Which part of that made you think Ol’ Joe was a man of the people?

3. “Hunter deserved to go to prison for 40-plus years.” Uh-huh. Tax evasion was the only way the U.S. government could finally toss Al Capone in the slammer. Do we equate Hunter Biden’s amoral mathematics with those of a killer? Not to go all Gilbert & Sullivan on you, but I have to agree with the lyric, “Let the punishment fit the crime” from their comic opera “The Mikado” even though Cicero said pretty much the same thing a few hundred years earlier. 
4. “What kind of message will this send to our children?” Actually, the same one all the parents I know, including me, have used when in an argumentative stalemate with their kid: “Because I said so.”