President Bush Grants Pardon to ‘Deliverance’ Actor

There’s been a lot of talk about President Bush’s use of his executive powers.

Now the critics can say that he is the first commander in chief to give a presidential pardon to a cast member of an Academy Award-nominated movie.

Randall Leece Deal of Clayton, Ga., was in the cast of the 1972 film, “Deliverance.” The movie also starred Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight.

You may recall that the “Deliverance” plot involves a group of recreating urban businessmen who end up having some highly disagreeable contacts with some backwoods Southerners.

Back in the 1960s, Deal was convicted on two counts of violating liquor laws and one count of conspiring to violate liquor laws, also known as moonshining.

Deal never served jail time for the convictions but sought a presidential pardon to remove the stain from his record.

Not someone who appears to be the least bit connected with Washington, D.C., Deal has worked at the Rabun County Sheriff's Department for the last 16 years.

According to Federal Election Commission records, he has never made a single federal political contribution.

Bush’s action stands in contrast to the pardons doled out by former President Bill Clinton to Puerto Rican terrorists and fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose ex-wife Denise donated $70,000 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign and $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library fund.

Rich had been indicted on charges of evading more than $48 million in taxes. He was also charged with 51 counts of tax fraud and with running illegal oil deals with Iran during the hostage crisis.

The Left Coast Report could find no record of Rich having been a moonshiner.