What is there to investigate about a pardon? Congress can’t take it back. If the guy were innocent I’d think he’d have been pardoned much earlier, so I don’t see the point except to make Congressmen feel important.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/02/08/rich.imunity/index.html
The point is to make your political opponent look bad.
Hearings also give Dan Burton opportunities to solidify his reputation as our most laughably inept congressman, smoke-coming-out-of-ears division.
There are two reasons why Dan “Nuke Iraq” Burton is doing this: [list=1]
[li]to make Bill Clinton look bad[/li][li]to make Hilary Clinton look bad[/li][/list=1]Bill Clinton is a dead duck, but Hilary is a major Republican nemesis. And Dan Burton is a leading Republican strongarm man. It’s party politics at its finest.
I think that award has to go to John “The earth is 6000 years old and the dinosaur bones were put there by aliens working for the devil” Hostetler. Although that might be the most laughably inept, God-is-my-shepherd-I-shall-not-think division.
Remember, God wants YOU to vote for JOHN HOSTETLER.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by KellyM *
**
Surely you jest.
He doesn’t really think that, right?
KellyM: What are they putting in that Hoosier water?
Well, he didn’t confirm having stated that that was his belief, but he didn’t deny it either. This factoid made the rounds during his first reelection campaign.
I have no idea what it is about Indiana Republicans that makes them so bizarre. And I used to BE one. 
In my humble opinion, these congessmen are opening a can of worms that they will regret not leaving closed. They spent eight years going after Bill Clinton and he survived. Do they really think they can hurt him now? Face fakes; like him or hate him, Clinton’s a master of swaying public opinion. If they’re foolish enough to target him, Clinton will appear before Congresss and (plausibly) portray himself as a private citizen who’s being attacked by the entire weight of the government in an ongoing vendetta for doing nothing but showing sympathy and compassion for a friend and supporter. Clinton’s performance before Burton’s committee will put Oliver North’s to shame. Burton and his allies will end up looking about as good as the defendants at the Nuremburg trials.
Lil N’s got it about right, I even suspect that Bill may be playing a deep game: letting it bubble and fume. Remember, both Burton and Barr are on the Committee to Find Some Kind of Way to Impeach Him Anyway, both feverish competitors for the I Hate William Jefferson Clinton’s Guts award. Without Bill, they are bereft of sound-bite fodder. So he lets them go for the bait.
He has something. Don’t know what, maybe just relying on sheer tactical power, like Lil Nimrod suggests. My bet is that he knows something they don’t know, something he can reluctantly be forced to reveal: Mr. Rich just wants to come home because of a terminal illness contracted rescuing Timmy from the well. My daughter loves that little dog… You get the idea, all damp and dewy.
WHAM! Six points, spiked, and the goal posts thrust into Burton/Barrs conjoined rectum.
Taking bets, here.