President Bush took the rare and possibly unprecedented step of revoking a pardon he granted just yesterday.  A Brooklyn developer was among the 19 people pardoned by Bush, and a quick internet search yesterday revealed that a) Isaac Toussie is named in what is possibly the largest real estate discrimination suit in New York State history, which is still ongoing, and that b) Isaac's father Robert Toussie gave $28,500 to the Republican National Committee this year, as well as thousands more to Republican candidates. Locally, the pardon itself was first reported (as far as I know) by the Times' City Room blog. The background and contributions were reported by Raw Story and Ben Smith, who noted it was an odd time to be pardoning someone involved in mortgage scams.

The White House explanation for revoking the pardon is that "information that has subsequently come to light" in news reports changed Bush's mind. But let's be clear - there is nothing in news reports today about Isaac Toussie's crimes that wasn't in news reports available yesterday, other than outrage from New Yorkers who claim they were victimized by the Toussies. The only new piece of information is Robert Toussie's contributions, which came just months before his son's pardon petition and, according to federal campaign finance records, are his first ever political contributions, at least since 1992, the earliest searchable election cycle.

WH spokeswoman Dana Perino tells the AP, "The [WH] counsel's office [which recommended the pardon to Bush] generally doesn't include vetting of political contributions in its reviews on such matters, as that would be 'highly inappropriate on many levels.'" Fair enough. Political contributions ought not be a factor in determining worthiness for a pardon one way or the other.

Meanwhile, Ben Smith says, "I'd love to know the backstory on this one, because one factor -- the father's $28,500 contribution to the RNC -- seemed both like a)not enough money to buy a pardon and b)to create an appearance of conflict that made it a heavier lift, not a lighter one." Perhaps, but my question is, if not for the contribution, how did this pardon get into the hands of White House counsel Fred Fielding in the first place?

The White House appears to be trying to explain away the pardon reversal by saying that the Justice Department's pardon attorney had not reviewed the pardon request, which is usual procedure, and therefore Bush would like to give him a chance to do so. It's as if they're saying, "Oops! We forgot to run it by our pardon guy. The guy whose job is to look at pardons - we forgot to ask him."

But here's the thing - the pardon couldn't go through the Justice Department, because they don't accept applications from people who were convicted less than five years ago, as Toussie was. So a pardon for Toussie would have to go around Justice and straight to the President (who is, of course, welcome to pardon anyone he wants).

Granted, I don't know much about pardons and how applications get made. Maybe it's standard for the White House counsel to be entertaining pardon requests from all sorts of recently-convicted folks who can't go through Justice. But again, it seems to me the question here is how this request got to Fielding's desk and approved by him. The contributions are certainly one thing. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that Isaac Toussie's lawyer is Bradford Berenson, who was...an associate White House counsel during Bush's first term.

I'd say you get what you pay for - either in political contributions or in politically connected lawyers.  Frankly, I'm just amazed such a shameless White House took it back.