I'm as excited as the next person about the change and hope we can expect in this new epoch, but I do think the national politicians should be a little bit more cognizant of just what jackasses they look like when they do stuff like this during a time of great insecurity and fear among the populace.
I know the impulse to let bygones be bygones is strong among the old boys club. And it's very hard to see an older guy of 85 get taken down at the end of his life. (I was a softie who thought that Ford should pardon Nixon, so I'm sympathetic. But I learned...)
However, just today the congress decided that they can't do anything about the auto industry until next year, unemployment is the worst in 16 years, and the stock market completely tanked. And they spend over an hour lauding this convicted felon as a hero on the floor of the Senate?