President-elect Barack Obama announced today that one of his first acts upon taking office will be to pardon veteran Seinfeld actor Michael Richards for racial slurs he made at a comedy club in November, 2006.

Obama, citing his collector’s edition set of Seinfeld episodes and desire to help the nation throw off the shackles of racism, contacted the three-time Emmy Award winner by telephone this morning. Richards was reportedly so delighted he flew through a friend’s front door to deliver the news.

Interviewed through the reverse peephole in his apartment door, Richards noted that he has been doing little acting since the notorious 2006 incident. He has made ends meet working as a Moviephone operator, occasional H and H bagel employee, selling his life story to catalog magnate J. Peterman, publishing a coffee table book, posing as a Calvin Klein model, posing as Dr. Martin van Nostran from The Clinic, and as founder of the failed start-up Kramerica Industries.

Obama was reportedly lobbied to make the move by two friends of Richards, Lloyd Braun and Bob Sacamano.

A spokesman for President-elect Obama stated that another friend of Richards, Newman, will not be pardoned. Newman remains in federal prison, having been convicted of hiding several bags of U.S. Mail in a friend’s storage locker, and crossing state lines in a stolen postal vehicle filled with returnable bottles. Newman recently survived an attack by a cellmate, Crazy Joe Davola.