Welcome to the latest edition of my "I don't really care anymore who reads it; it's just going into the frackin' record" weekly column, "Toussie Tuesday," which asks why almost no seems to be asking what sort of quid pro quo underlay the pardon of Isaac Toussie by George W. Bush, which was followed quickly by the "ow-ow-ow this hot potato hurts my fingers!" unpardon of same.
Remember, the problem is not that Bush supposedly undid the pardon, it's that the pardon happened in the first place, which undoing it cannot erase. Somehow rising GOP start attorney Bradford Berenson's inside influence with White House Counsel Fred Fielding as an end-around run to a pardon for Isaac Toussie looks like it got traded for Issac's dad Robert's well-placed and timely contributions to severa GOP campaigns -- and we still don't know who arranged it and with what understanding.
This is, as we parents say, "unacceptable," and the only proper response is -- well, obsessive. To wit:
Previous diaries in the series:
It begins! (Dec. 26)
Learning more about Bradford Berenson (Jan. 6, first "Toussie Tuesday")
Are they getting away with it? (Jan. 13)
On non-Toussie matters (Jan. 20)
The Toussie-Berenson affair is not dead yet -- but it's not doing so well! Still, I soldier on.
In my weekly review of stories on Toussie Pardon Fixer Bradford Berenson, I decided not to review the previously skipped pre-inauguration week's worth of stories and have just looked back one week in the Google, to see what's up. We don't see the heavy reliance on Berenson as a source that we once did -- has he learned to lay low? if so, will it last? -- but there are still reverberations from the many unanswered questions about Toussie, Berenson, and what sure looks like GOP pay for play.
(1) Before we get to the past week, I must once again point out Dan Janison's excellent column from Newsday, which is still the best compilation of questions outside of the blogosphere on Bradford and Toussie. Read it. This is what reporting is supposed to look like. Again: want a primer? Read it.
(2) Now, here's a fun little report on what Bush thinks of his pardoning record:
After Bush issued a pardon to Isaac R. Toussie, a 36-year-old New York developer who pleaded guilty in 2001 to making false statements in a Long Island mortgage fraud case, critics said he did so because Toussie was represented by former associate White House counsel Bradford Berenson. After information surfaced that Toussie's application bypassed the Justice Department and that his father was a major donor to Republican causes, Bush took the unprecedented step of trying to revoke the pardon.
But Bush said he was "very proud" of not issuing pardons to the politically well-connected, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with CNN's Larry King.
"He said people who have gotten pardons are usually people who have influence or know friends in high places," a route that is "not available to ordinary people," Pelosi said, recounting an Inauguration Day conversation with the president. "He thought that there was more access for some than others and he was not going to do any."
Four hundred quatloos to the first person who can reasonably reconcile those last two paragraphs with the first paragraph without relying on the premise that Bush is crazy, lying, deluded, or was just being sarcastic to Pelosi. (Note: let's also assume that Pelosi correctly reported his statement. Otherwise it's no fun.)
(3) Fun Fact: After appearing on Frontline's "The Choice 2008" in October, Bradford Berenson achieved a Bacon Number of 2, thanks to actor Will Lyman. (This assumes that the same "Will Lyman" appeared in the Frontline documentary and Mystic River. Your faithful author is not going to check.)
(4) P.S. Ruckman's blog Pardon Power has several more interesting bits over the last week on the legality of the Toussie unpardon, but there's no more reporting on the apparent pay-for-play scandal regarding how Toussie got Berenson propelled into the White House and Fred Fielding to fork over the positive recommendation.
(5) I don't think I'd seen this before, but Think Progress did a piece back when this all came out entitled "What Role Did Bradford Berenson Have In Bush’s Pardongate?" It was a good question then -- a month later, it's still a good question, and still unanswered. (Another good question: if Berenson himself didn't have that much of a role in setting all of this up, then who did? And who chose Norm Coleman, Gordon Smith, and rising star GOP rainmaker Eric Cantor's PAC for the well-targeted last-minute contributions? And was final approval of the pardon contingent on those contributions? And was the unpardon so quick because they were worried this would come out? It is a sad world indeed for the Toussie-Berenson obsessive, but the obsessive does want answers, dammit.)
The sad news is that it looks like Bradford Berenson may be getting away without these questions being answered. The Think Progress piece above is now the #3 Google hit for his name; my 1/13 diary is only #16. The only thing to do in a situation like this is to keep pursuing him maniacally -- he has to have the bad sense to talk to another reporter sometime! Here's hoping, Dear Reader, that you're enjoying a happy Toussie Tuesday! If answers don't come before then, see you next week!