By CHARLIE HARPER

US President Joe Biden emerged from the shadows of irrelevance this week, but not in the way he would have preferred to do so.

He got some attention over the weekend by cramming into the Washington-to-Kiev pipeline as much military support for embattled Ukraine as his generals and military advisers told him was feasible. But the related press coverage paled in comparison to the attention directed toward a move Biden made on Sunday.

He announced that he was granting to his ill-fated son Hunter Biden a full pardon covering the past eleven years. This action was taken after the president had repeatedly avowed that he would allow the American justice system to take its course and abide by its verdicts. Hunter faced possible prison time after he was convicted on federal gun registration and income tax evasion charges.

Biden had repeatedly denied that he would issue a presidential pardon for his son. “I abide by the jury decision. I will not pardon him,” Biden said.

Then, however, Kamala Harris lost the November election and the spectre of Donald Trump’s return to the White House became a reality. Now things are obviously different in Joe Biden’s mind.

In a statement released Sunday evening, Joe Biden said, “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

As the Associated Press reported, the president’s sweeping pardon covers not just the gun and tax offences against his son, but also any other “offences against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024”.

In its collective reaction to the president’s decision to pardon his son, the liberal media offered stark evidence of some of the reasons why they were not able to prevent Trump from triumphing again.

Some pundits rallied around the president, affirming his belief that if Hunter were someone else’s son, none of this legal peril would exist.

“Any responsible father, given the opportunity to rescue his son as the president has done with this pardon, would do the same thing,” wrote one liberal columnist. “In Joe Biden’s situation, I would absolutely have done what he did.”

But that was a minority view. The editorial board of the Washington Post, for example, wrote thus on Tuesday: “In issuing the pardon to his son, the president maligned the Justice Department and invited Donald Trump to draw equivalence between the Hunter Biden pardon and any future moves Trump might take against the impartial administration of justice. Biden risks deepening many Americans’ suspicions that the justice system is two-tiered, justifying Trump’s drive to reshape it — or, because turnabout is fair play, to use it to benefit his own side.

“Yet, no matter the distinctions that one can draw between these cases (Trump’s pardoning four years ago of his disreputable pals Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, among others) and Hunter Biden’s, the president — and the Democrats — are the ones trying to defend the system; they damage their worthy cause if they are seen to be exploiting it for their own gain.

“Any Democrat who refuses this week to condemn Mr Biden’s pardon will have less credibility to criticise Trump, his meddling at the Justice Department and his choices for key positions in that agency. With this one intemperate, selfish act, the president has undermined the lofty rationales he offered for seeking the presidency four years ago and indelibly marred the final chapter of his political career.”

The Post is regarded as among the most widely read and powerful liberal voices in the daily newspaper business in the US. The paper was rescued from possible financial ruin by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2013, and the world’s third richest man has largely kept his hands off the editorial staff since then.

But as the editors and most of the Post’s leading columnists piled on Biden for his hypocrisy and betrayal of his own high-minded ideals, readers were reminded of a time-tested truism in American politics.

The Democrats try to play fair. The Republicans play to win.

When Trump issued all his pardons in late 2020, there was no chorus of outrage from Congressional Republicans nor from friendly Fox News. Fox’s lead commentators snickered and railed against government overreach, hoaxes and over zealous Democratic politicians. The MAGA base moved quickly on.

In this connection, it will be interesting to observe how the Senate treats Trump’s recent nomination of Charles Kushner, his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, to be US Ambassador to France.

Kushner was convicted almost 20 years ago of filing fraudulent tax returns, retaliating against a cooperating witness, and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. He served more than 16 months of a two-year sentence in federal prison and a halfway house programme before he was released in 2006.

In today’s America, if the Dems keep turning on their own as the Post has done with Biden and in the process provides ammunition and credibility for the mischief now envisioned by Donald Trump and his Congressional and judicial allies, the blue party may be singing the Blues for years to come.

It might be cynical to suggest that playing fair, hewing to high-minded ideals and treating political parties scrupulously even-handedly is no longer the best way to ensure influence in the internet age. Many readers do still trust the Post, however, as they do the New York Times, the Associated Press and a few other news outlets who work hard to maintain public faith and confidence.

Cynics often say they are actually realists. Given the results of the recent US election, who’s to argue?

Meanwhile, down in Palm Beach, while Trump claims a “historic landslide” victory last month and believes he has earned a “strong mandate” from American voters to do virtually whatever he wants to do as president, the margin in Congress is actually fairly narrow.

As of this morning, it looks like the Senate will line up 53-47 for the Republicans and the House tally will be 220-215, also for the GOP. Those are not huge margins, especially in the House of Representatives.

While the Senate will likely approve most of Trump’s nominees for cabinet and other powerful positions, a few will no doubt after traditional FBI background investigations that the Trump campaign has just this week accepted for his nominees. One of those casualties may be his nominee for Secretary of Defense.

The prognosis for Trump and his budget policies and priorities is much murkier in the House, where the Democrats under now-minority leader Hakeem Jeffries have maintained a solid unity in opposition to the GOP’s most outrageous proposals. The House is also where the federal budget is most rigorously debated, and Trump will need to tread carefully here.

House Republicans have proven to be a much more fractious bunch than GOP Senators. There’s no discretion, civility or moderation among many of these congressmen and congresswomen. Mike Johnson’s hold on the Speaker’s gavel may not be firm for long. And that could spell trouble for Trump’s priorities.

Meanwhile, now that the election excitement has passed, most Americans can resume their obsession with football. And our local Miami teams are at the centre of post-season speculation, both in the college and professional ranks.

There will be much speculation about whether the University of Miami will make the new 12-team college playoff field, and where it should be seeded if it does make it. “The U” has not been significant in national college football ranks in recent years.

The programme amassed five national championships between 1983-2001, but especially after joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004, those titles have faded somewhat. And the Hurricanes won’t play in this year’s ACC title game. They do have dynamic quarterback Cam Ward, but making the 12-team playoff field seems like a long shot at this point.

The NFL Dolphins, meanwhile, don’t seem any more likely as playoff contestants in the highly competitive American Conference. They’re 5-7 now, but they could win their five remaining games and if they do, the Fins could indeed still make the post-season tournament.

A too-predictable offence and disappointing defence have hindered the Fins so far, and their prospects are not bright.