KINDER'S COMMENTARY: CLINTON'S CLEMENCY FOR DEADLY TERRORISTS IS THE ULTIMATE ACT OF AUDACITY

So the Clintons' policy is clemency for deadly terrorists, and a dozen of these are receiving get-out-of-jail-free passes.

What manner of persons are these, the Clintons? I submit that there is no incident -- not Hillary's miraculous luck with cattle futures, not the Lewinsky affair, not the many wag-the-dog scenarios that have played out during their White House years -- that is as telling as clemency for the Puerto Rican terrorists. It is here that we see the full extent of Hillary's and Bill's limitless audacity, their total self-absorption, their recklessness, their unutterable shamelessness.

With the entire Western world, America is locked in the second generation of a deadly, worldwide war against international terrorism. The president takes an oath to defend our Constitution and laws. He bears a solitary responsibility, as commander in chief, to protect American lives.

Then, with his wife's New York Senate race looming and New Yorkers of Puerto Rican descent a key voting block, the Clintons hatch a scheme: Offer clemency to 16 convicted Puerto Rican terrorists. For perspective, consider: In the previous six and a half years of his presidency, Mr. Clinton has granted exactly three such requests out of more than 3,000.

The clemency offer is opposed by every law enforcement agency with anything to say in the matter: The FBI, the U.S. attorneys in New York and Illinois, other state and federal officials, everybody. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whom Hillary hopes to replace, is among many senior Democrats opposed. Notwithstanding this united front of opposition, President Clinton overrules his own law enforcement community and makes the offer.

Listen to their former prosecutor:

"As one of the FALN prosecutors, I know too much. ... I know the chilling evidence that convicted the petitioners -- the violence and vehemence with which they conspired to wage war on all of us. ...

"The petitioners were captured in the back of a van loaded with weapons to be used to commit armed robberies ... Three were caught on videotape in safe houses making bombs that they planned to plant at military installations. ... The imprisoned leader of the FALN (whose sentence President Clinton has drastically reduced) led a conspiracy of cooperating radical groups to obtain C-4 explosives to be used to free him from Leavenworth Penitentiary and to wage war on the American people. Most ... were convicted of seditious conspiracy, a prosecution reserved for the most serious conspiracies, that of opposing by force the authority of the United States.

"... When news of the conditional clemency broke, the White House spun the tale that Mr. Clinton was freeing only those who had harmed no one. A few dedicated federal agents are the only people who stood in their way. The conspirators made every effort to murder and to maim."

Outrageously, the Clintons expect us all to believe that this is somehow a healthy marital disagreement, when the truth is that polling revealed that the deal was a major bummer with swing voters, and she'd better start backing away.

Truly, truly there is nothing the Clintons won't try. Think of the contempt they show for American voters of Puerto Rican descent! One recalls Winston Churchill, during the Second World War, addressing the U.S. Congress after Pearl Harbor. Referring to the Japanese warlords and their audacious sneak attack, Churchill mused aloud to his English-speaking cousins, now his new, official wartime allies, "What kind of people do they think we are?"

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.