W's dad, George H. W. Bush, already set a very dangerous precedent at the end of his term, one that received remarkably little attention.

I am talking about the pardon of Casper Weinberger. Weinberger was charged with lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra scandal. Had the case gone to trial, it is pretty clear that he would have been convicted. It also would have been apparent that Weinberger was in fact carrying out Bush administration policy when he perjured himself before Congress.

So what you have is a situation where the President basically ordered a cabinet-level official to break the law, then pardoned him when he got caught. This makes a mockery of the concept that no one is above the law, not even the President. If the President's aides can break the law confident of receiving pardons if they are caught then we do not have the rule of law in this country.

There needs to be a Constitutional amendment restricting the Presidential pardon-granting power. Basically, Presidents should not have the ability to grant pardons to themselves, nor (if the charges relate to official misconduct) to any person who worked directly for the President.