I've just read a diary where the comments are - justifiably in my view - taking a whack at the diarist for seeming sympathetic to Saddam and, perhaps, making DailyKos participants look sympathetic to Saddam. My diary is motivated by the dissonance in the last few days of commentary about how courageous it was for President Ford to preemptively pardon President Nixon and thereby establish the principle that it is simply too painful to hold an American President accountable to the law while at the same time we are told that the execution of Saddam Hussein validates the rule of law.
Here is the full text of President Ford's pardon:
"Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from July (January) 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974."
If President Nixon was later found to have murdered someone with his bare hands or stolen billions from the US Treasury, this pardon ensures that he could not be prosecuted because it is a blanket pardon against prosecution for anything that might come up even unknown at the time of the pardon.
And its not at though President Nixon was Santa Claus except for the Watergate crimes. His bombing Cambodia was a war crime under the Nuremberg principles.