Politics

Dubya Sidesteps Pardons Flap

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 22, 2001 / 3:43 PM EST / CBS

During his first White House news conference, President Bush refused to wade into the ongoing controversy over the last-minute pardons issued by President Clinton.

"As far as this White House is concerned, it's time to go forward. I've got too much to do ... to be worrying about decisions that my predecessor made," Mr. Bush told reporters on Thursday.

The president said he had too much else on his plate - in trying to win approval of an education program, tax cuts, and a new budget.

Mr. Bush said there are some in Congress who will want to look into the pardons that Mr. Clinton issued just before he left office - and he said they are within their rights to investigate.

As for his own Justice Department, the president said any investigating of the pardons controversy will be done in a nonpartisan way.

"Should I decide to grant pardons, I will do so in a fair way. I will have the highest of high standards," Mr. Bush added. "But the president (Clinton) made the decisions he made and he can answer the questions raised."

Earlier in the day, the White House said it was reviewing its pardons policy, but declined comment on the controversy over Mr. Clinton's clemency decisions, saying, "We have other fish to fry."

Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said White House counsel Al Gonzales was conducting a study with the Justice Department on how the Bush administration should handle its own pardons, but denied this was triggered by Mr. Clinton's actions.

"We have other fish to fry," he told reporters when asked about Mr. Clinton's pardons. "That's not a topic the president is going to look back on. The president ... is looking ahead and focused on his polices and his agenda."

Fleischer said Gonzales was looking at Mr. Clinton's actions and those of other presidents only to the extent that they offered "helpful guideposts of what to do, what not to do."

Under the U.S. Constitution, the president has the power to grant reprieves and pardons except in cases of impeachment.

"Pardons are an ongoing responsibility of the president and it's the White House counsel's responsibility to come up with a policy," Fleischer said, saying the review began soon after Mr. Bush took office. "It's perfectly natural in any new administration to review existing policies and then come up with your own."

Reports about the Clinton pardons have soaked up media attention for days while stories about Mr. Bush's agenda have tended to get pushed to the back pages.

Asked if the Clinton pardons were proving a distraction to the White House, Fleischer replied: "Not for President Bush."

"We don't measure success in terms of the size of headlines," he added, saying Mr. Bush's poll ratings were rising across the country among all groups of Americans. "So we're satisfed with the message the American people are hearing and their reaction to it."