Political Memo: Resurrecting Ghosts of Pardons Past His testimony revealed little about how Mr. Rich won his pardon, and Republicans had worked behind the scenes to spare him from appearing at all. But by calling him, Representative Henry A. Waxman, the committee's ranking Democrat, sought to make a point: Mr. Clinton may have been irresponsible in issuing his final sheaf of pardons, but Republicans do not have completely clean hands on the issue. During the hearing, Mr. Waxman cited the case of Orlando Borsch, suspected of being a terrorist from Cuba, who was released from jail in 1990 by the administration of former President George Bush. Jeb Bush, the former president's son who is now the governor of Florida, had lobbied for Mr. Borsch's release, which had become a cause c�l�bre among Cuban-Americans in South Florida. The Borsch case was not the only one that Mr. Waxman raised as he sought to turn the tables on Republican investigators in what has become the Democrats' tried-and-true technique for trying to trip up the many inquiries started by Mr. Burton, Republican of Indiana. Mr. Waxman said he found the pardon of Armand Hammer just as suspicious as that of Mr. Rich. In 1989, former President Bush pardoned Mr. Hammer, the former head of Occidental Petroleum who had pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions. Mr. Hammer was a major donor to Republicans. Shortly before he received the pardon, he gave more than $100,000 to the Republican Party and $100,000 to the Bush-Quayle Inaugural Committee. "The appearance of a quid pro quo is just as strong in the Hammer case as in the Rich case, if not stronger, since Mr. Hammer himself gave the contribution," Mr. Waxman said. In the case of Mr. Rich, it was his former wife, Denise, who was both a pardon advocate and major donor � she gave $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library. Mr. Waxman called on Mr. Burton to subpoena the library records of the Republican administrations to look into potential abuses. Mr. Burton did not take him up on his offer. "I was turned down," Mr. Waxman said. "It seems we can pursue President Clinton's library, but not President Bush's or President Reagan's." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/04/politics/04MEMO.html?pagewanted=allt