Here's a criticism of Bush's commutation...
When he was running for president, George W. Bush loved to contrast his law-abiding morality with that of President Clinton, who was charged with perjury and acquitted. For Mr. Bush, the candidate, “politics, after a time of tarnished ideals, can be higher and better.”
Not so for Mr. Bush, the president. Judging from his decision yesterday to commute the 30-month sentence of I. Lewis Libby Jr. — who was charged with perjury and convicted — untarnished ideals are less of a priority than protecting the secrets of his inner circle and mollifying the tiny slice of right-wing Americans left in his political base.
Mr. Libby was convicted of lying to federal agents investigating the leak of the name of a covert C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson. Mrs. Wilson’s husband, Joseph Wilson, was asked to investigate a central claim in Mr. Bush’s drive to war with Iraq — whether Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Africa. Mr. Wilson concluded that Iraq had not done that and had the temerity to share those conclusions with the American public.
It seems clear from the record that Vice President Cheney organized a campaign to discredit Mr. Wilson. And Mr. Libby, who was Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, was willing to lie to protect his boss.
That made Mr. Libby the darling of the right, which demanded that Mr. Bush pardon him. Those same Republicans have been rebelling against Mr. Bush, most recently on immigration reform, while Democrats in Congress have pursued an investigation into whether Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney lied about Iraq’s weapons programs.
All of this put immense pressure on the president to do something before Mr. Libby went to jail. But none of it was justification for the baldly political act of commuting his sentence.
Mr. Bush’s assertion that he respected the verdict but considered the sentence excessive only underscored the way this president is tough on crime when it’s committed by common folk. As governor of Texas, he was infamous for joking about the impending execution of Karla Faye Tucker, a killer who became a born-again Christian on death row. As president, he has repeatedly put himself and those on his team, especially Mr. Cheney, above the law.
Within minutes of the Libby announcement, the same Republican commentators who fulminated when Paris Hilton got a few days knocked off her time in a county lockup were parroting Mr. Bush’s contention that a fine, probation and reputation damage were “harsh punishment” enough for Mr. Libby.
Presidents have the power to grant clemency and pardons. But in this case, Mr. Bush did not sound like a leader making tough decisions about justice. He sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell.
Ooops! I'm sorry, the defense I posted was of President Clinton's over 400 pardons and commutations.
But, they were both the defense of Clinton (2/18/01) and the criticism of Bush (07/03/07) did share one thing in common. They're both editorial opinions of the New York Times.
What bias? The New York Times spends it considerable opinion capital excusing and explaining Clinton's use of the Cons utional executive power while employing it to criticize President Bush.
List of all pardons by a US president - last four in office bolded. For whoever asked earlier, Clinton pardoned 140 people his last day in office.
Franklin D. Roosevelt- 3687
Woodrow Wilson- 2480
Harry S. Truman- 2044
Calvin Coolidge- 1545
Herbert Hoover- 1385
Ulysses S. Grant- 1332
Lyndon B. Johnson- 1187
Dwight D. Eisenhower- 1157
Grover Cleveland - 1107
Theodore Roosevelt - 981
Richard Nixon- 926
William McKinley - 918
Rutherford B. Hayes- 893
Warren G. Harding- 800
William H. Taft- 758
Andrew Johnson- 654
Benjamin Harrison- 613
John F. Kennedy- 575
Jimmy Carter- 566
Bill Clinton- 456
James Monroe- 419
Gerald Ford- 409
Ronald Reagan- 406
Andrew Jackson- 386
Abraham Lincoln- 343
Chester Arthur- 337
James K. Polk- 268
John Tyler- 209
James Madison- 196
John Quincy Adams- 183
Millard Fillmore- 170
Martin Van Buren- 168
James Buchanan- 150
Franklin Pierce- 142
Thomas Jefferson- 119
George W. Bush- 117
George H. W. Bush- 77
Zachary Taylor- 38
John Adams- 21
George Washington- 16
James Garfield- 0
William H Harrison- 0
I'm impressed to see both Bush's squarely in the thick of a bunch of founding fathers on this issue.
And, I'm completely unsurprised to find FDR at the top of the heap.
what else should be expected from the greatest presidents who ever lived?
Exactly.
Well, maybe not the greatest but, as with his pardons and commutations -- in that league.
Thanks for recognizing this, Oh Gee!! There may be hope for you yet.
@ liberals defending Clinton and attacking Bush on this issue, and neocons defending Bush and attacking Clinton.
Same ol', same ol'.
Props to Aggie. I do read his takes and he is defends Bush in most of them. But he puts his partisanship aside on this issue.
I have never ever seen political forum hardline posters do that. Ever.
Where were you when many of the President's supporters, me included, bashed his compromise "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" piece of trash into the dust where it belonged?
Same ol', same ol'.
Props to Aggie. I do read his takes and he is defends Bush in most of them. But he puts his partisanship aside on this issue.
I have never ever seen political forum hardline posters do that. Ever.
Is it partisan to believe the President did the right thing in this case? And, as far as bashing Clinton, I've only done so on a few of his pardons or commutations. , he granted 496 of 'em, there's bound to have been one that was deserved. I only complained about the 4 or so that were newsworth and clearly some kind of quid pro quo.
Hey Yoni, how many convicted felons did Clinton commute or pardon in the middle of his term?
How many years did Mark Rich and other conspirators in the White water scandal do in Prison, including solitary confinement?
That's the ethical difference that wing-nuts like Yoni refuse to acknowledge between the Clinton and Bush pardons, Rich did about a couple years in prison, if Rich was gonna spill the beans on any other Clinton dirt he possibly had to get a pardon, he had ample time in prison. Scooter, on the other hand, won't have to do a day in prison.
Thanks Cheney.
en IMPEACH NOW!
I don't know but, had you looked at the list of pardons you would have seen he granted them on several different occassions during his presidency;
November 23, 1994
April 17, 1995
December 23, 1997
December 24, 1998
February 19, 1999
December 23, 1999
February 19, 2000
March 15, 2000
July 7, 2000
October 20, 2000
November 21, 2000
December 22, 2000
January 20, 2001
He granted 496 Pardons and Commutations so, subtract the 140 granted on his last day in office, there were 356 during his term in office. I believe all were convicted of felonies.
Some of his most controversial pardons?
Marc Rich, who you mention below.
16 FALN terrorists in 1999 (opposed by most of America, including his then Senatorial candidate wife. Invoked executive privilege when asked for do ents that would have probably explained his reasons for pardoning a bunch of terrorists)
Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory who had their pardon bought through Hillary's brother.
Melvin J. Reynolds, and Illinois Congressman convicted of bank fraud, 12 counts of sexual assault (maybe Clinton identified), and other charges related to child porn.
Roger Clinton, his brother.
Dan Rostenkowski
Susan McDougal
Carlos Vignali, a convicted cocaine runner who just happened to pay $200,000 to Hillary's brother to represent him in the clemency hearing.
Almon Glenn Braswell, mail fraud and perjury...also paid $200,000 to Hugh Rodham.
Nope. He fled the country and came home when his wife sucked a pardon out of Clinton's penis.
And that my friends, is the ethical difference between the Clinton and Bush pardons. Libby committed a crime that was immaterial to the investigation in which he was being questioned. The principle question of the investigation had been answered and there's no pretense on the part of Fitzgerald that Libby's perjury caused any harm to his investigation.
The people I listed above, including Marc Rich, committed real crimes with real victims and caused real harm.
Hey, Nbadan, here's an interesting little tidbit I did not know about Marc Rich.
According to Paul Volcker's independent investigation of Iraqi Oil-for-Food kickback schemes, Marc Rich was a middleman for several suspect Iraqi oil deals involving over 4 million barrels of oil.
Probe: $1.8B diverted to Hussein regime
Some good that pardon did. Goes from dealing with Iran to dealing with Iraq. Jeeze!
I don't know the cir stances to every individual case, but Clinton isn't the first President to pardon felons, in fact, Bush41 pardoned a few convicted felons of his own. The point is that all of these Presidential Pardons were granted years after the convictions and imprisonments, these felons served years in prison.
Libby knew where Cheney's bodies are buried, he was his former chief of staff, and for that he gets to be above the law of us normal peasants.
Hey Yoni, as we've seen, the UN and IAAE inspections were working. The sanctions and embargo should never have to placed in the first place.
Well, no, that's not the point. Besides the fact that Marc Rich didn't serve one day in prison -- the point is the crimes for which these people were convicted.
If this is true, Bush should have pardoned him. Not only does he have to pay a $250,000 fine, he's still a convicted felon with all the attendant restrictions on his liberty; and, he'll be disbarred, thus, depriving him of his principle method of earnings.
Oh yeah, he's probably ineligible for his previous job of Vice President's Chief of Staff.
Some deal. I'm not sure I'd maintain my silence over "buried bodies" for this kind of "conservative compassion."
You're an idiot Dan.
Bush says doesn't rule out pardon for Libby
Tue Jul 3, 2007 12:30 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he did not rule out a full pardon for Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a day after he spared the former White House aide prison time for his perjury conviction in the CIA leak case.
Asked whether he would rule out a full pardon for Libby, Bush replied: "As to the future I rule nothing in and nothing out."
Bush doesn't rule out Spinach for dinner either.
Exactly what would it profit him to answer such a question. The left already hates him and, nothing -- absolutely nothing -- this president says or does will ever be satisfactory.
I say, leave 'em guessing.
WikipediaOn August 11, 1999, Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican nationalist group that set off 120 bombs in the United States mostly in New York City and Chicago, convicted for conspiracies to commit robbery, bomb-making, and sedition, as well as for firearms and explosives violations.[3] None of the 16 were convicted of bombings or any crime which injured another person, though they were sentenced with terms ranging from 35 to 105 years in prison for the conviction of conspiracy and sedition. Congress, however, recognizes that the FALN is responsible for "6 deaths and the permanent maiming of dozens of others, including law enforcement officials." All of the 16 had served 19 years or longer in prison, which was a longer sentence than such crimes typically received, according to the White House.[citation needed] Clinton offered clemency, on condition that the prisoners renounce violence, at the appeal of 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, President Jimmy Carter, the cardinal of New York, and the archbishop of Puerto Rico. The commutation was opposed by U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and criticized by many including former victims of FALN terrorist activities, the Fraternal Order of Police,[4] members of Congress, and Hillary Clinton in her campaign for Senator.[5] Congress condemned the action, with a vote of 95-2 in the Senate and 311-41 in the House.[6][7] The U.S. House Committee on Government Reform held an investigation on the matter, but the Justice Department prevented FBI officials from testifying.[8] President Clinton cited executive privilege for his refusal to turn over some do ents to Congress related to his decision to offer clemency to members of the FALN terrorist group.
I don't think there needs to be much guessing as to what he will eventually do with Libby's conviction.
There's no doubt that a full pardon is coming as soon as Dubya is out.
Only time will tell.
Marc Rich, a fugitive, was pardoned of tax evasion, after clemency pleas from Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, among many other international luminaries. Denise Rich, Marc's former wife, was a close friend of the Clintons and had made substantial donations to both Clinton's library and Hillary's Senate campaign. Clinton agreed to a pardon that required Marc Rich to pay a $100,000,000 fine before he could return to the United States. According to Paul Volcker's independent investigation of Iraqi Oil-for-Food kickback schemes, Marc Rich was a middleman for several suspect Iraqi oil deals involving over 4 million barrels of oil.[14]Well, no, that's not the point. Besides the fact that Marc Rich didn't serve one day in prison -- the point is the crimes for which these people were convicted.
Rich has never returned to the U.S...
Dan, you emphasized the wrong passages. Here, let me help:
I wonder how much they donated to the Clinton Library for that kind of treatment. , the President even ignored his wife's displeasure.
reinstate it?
Your point?
You're right, what would be the point?
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