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I really didnt expect anything less.
As expected.....
Bush Commutes Libby Prison Sentence
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago
President Bush commuted the sentence of former aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case. Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.
Bush's move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case. That decision put the pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby's allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney.
Libby was convicted in March of lying to authorities and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative's iden y. He was the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair.
I really didnt expect anything less.
OMG!
This comes as a shock to absolutely nobody.
There has to be some kind of Clueless or Politically Unaware troll ready to pounce with "I'm shocked by this development" or "Who is Scooter Libby/George W. Bush," right?
bush is really trying to make a run at harding for the "worst president ever" le.
What was the purpose of the trial?
Find out who outed Valerie Plame
Who outed Valerie Plame?
Richard Armitage
How do we know this?
He admitted it
Will he be punished?
Probably not
To put Libby in jail for a process cime, while Armitage walks free after having admitted guilt to the crime in question would be rediculous.
"To put Libby in jail for a process crime"
The ing Repugs impeached Clinton for a single "process crime" ("I didn't have (legal) sex with that woman").
Libby repeated his "process crime" 4 times, in trying to cover up Artmitage's illegality, which most definitely arose from head's campaign to slime Wilson for daring to be anti-war/anti- head.
As is so often the case, the cover up is worse than the original crime.
Pardoning Libby is just more proof that dubya/dichkead consider the Exec to beyond the reach of any laws.
As Repug s bug Richard Nixon said years after he was chased out of office, "if the President does it, it's not illegal". The current Repug Exec continues in the tradition of Repug s bagginess.
Along with dubya's packed SCOTUS crushing individual rights to protect and prefer ins utions, which is the France political philosophy (the state is supreme, individuals are secondary), this Exec is extremely, profoundly French: "L'etat. C'est moi".
dubya thinks God wanted him to be president, and he's gone back to the royal "divine right" of governing.
Last edited by boutons_; 07-02-2007 at 06:26 PM.
Well done, Mr. President.
"What was the purpose of the (Libby) trial?
Find out who outed Valerie Plame"
Wrong. To try Libby for lying to the feds. convicted.
What was the purpose of Fitzgerald's investigation?
To find out who outed Plame.
No Way!!!
No, pardoning Marc Rich demonstrated "no ing shame at all." Mr. Libby is still a convicted felon. The president only commuted his sentence.
Are these types of comments just reflexive and vomited out whatever the topic?
Where, oh where, have all the law-and-order Republicans gone?
If Bush is above the law for pardoning one person, what do you think of Bill Clinton? How many did he pardon his last day in office?
Please tell me you were this outraged about all of Clinton's pardons. If not,
What? The conviction stands, he's still on the hook for the $250,000 fine, and he's a felon for the rest of his life.
on the money.
I think it's a fair resolution.
But, on the other hand, I also believe the lefty outrage over this can only push the President's conservative polling number up. Thanks!
For the record, Clinton's wasn't a "process crime." Real people were harmed by his perjury, suborning perjury, and obstruction of justice. His crime -- had it gone undetected -- would have denied Paula Jones a fair and full adjudication of her lawsuit against then President Clinton.
Scooter Libby's perjury harmed no one and obstructed nothing. The questions that were the subject of the entire investigation had already been answered.
Pretty big distinction.
I could care less about the decision by the President. Big deal.
I'm more interested in the willingness of our Right wing to resort to some sort of moral relativism: the "if Clinton did it (and, perhaps, several times worse) then Bush is absolutely justified" rationalization. I never realized that the very President who was demonized in 2000 for his supposed lack of a moral compass is now the standard by which the acts of subsequent Presidents should be measured? If Republicans were right about President Clinton in 2000, that would certainly seem to make the standard we expect of a President's behavior to be fairly low; otherwise, perhaps President Clinton wasn't as bad as Republicans told us he was in 2000.
I don't know about you but, I'd rather have been a crony of Clinton's than of Bush's.
Clinton pardoned his cronies (although it probably had more to do with a quid pro quo than it did with any sense of friendship). President Bush, on the other hand, merely commuted Libby's sentence...he's still a convicted felon with all the restrictions and lost liberties that entails; and, he's still liable for the $250,000 fine.
Yeah, I'd rather be a Clinton "crony."
I hope you're checking your blood pressure, you seem a little unhinged about this.
Well, as for me, I think the president's decision today was the right thing to do. Libby committed a "process crime" that harmed no one -- except for the ins ution of justice; something many in government have been doing with impugnity for quite some time.
I think the president showed respect for the law by not pardoning Scooter Libby while demonstrating his understanding of the unfairness of it all (Scooter going to prison while Sandy Berger remains free) by commuting his jail time.
Tell me, FWD, (and I think you try to be analytical and reasonable on these matters most of the time), what would have been served by Libby going to prison? It's not like anyone's day in court was delayed or denied because of his crime.
Other people will pay Libby's fine, just like other peope paid the Clinton's many $Ms in legal fees to defend themselves against Repug witch hunting.
don't cry for Libby's pocket book, he will b taken care of.
And Repug law firms will hire him, his career will be taken care of.
Lying to the feds is seen by the Repugs as fully justifiable when a Repug does it, but when Clinton did it, he was impeached.
I wonder, though, if you'd feel the same way if this was a Democrat President (say, President Clinton, for instance) and the convicted official was Al Gore's Chief of Staff. I suspect that if that question was answered genuinely by everyone who posts here, the ideologues among us would view an action like today's very differently -- right-wingers would see the act as an abuse of office or some such, while left-wingers would see it as a wholly justified act, likely for the very reasons that you cite.
Personally, I don't think this decision is that nuanced. I think the White House knows it would face a major blowup if Libby had been fully pardoned and understood that the better way to deal with this politically was to commute the sentence.
I don't disagree with your premise that prison time for Libby would have been mostly for show and not aimed at achieving any real end. That's why I noted initially that I don't really care about this. (and I mis-spoke in my original post -- I meant to say that I couldn't care less about this). It's a non-story made into a story only by virtue of the iden ies of those involved.
There are far greater ills being visited upon our society by this Administration, IMO, than commuting the sentences of bureaucrats.
Well we will see when Mr. Bush has his last day then we will be able to compare. Most Presidents do the pardon's on their last day in office.
Why are you talking about pardons? No one's been pardoned.Please tell me you were this outraged about all of Clinton's pardons. If not,
I just wanted to hear you clarify.
For the record, I think what Bush did today was bull . I also think Clinton's pardoning spree was bull .
I'm just tired of jackasses like boutons holding Bush and Co. to one standard while completely ignoring it for those on their side of the aisle.
Honestly, I'm sick of all the politicians in D.C. The disconnect between politicians and the general American public has never been greater than it is today.
Those assholes have no perspective relative to what anyone on this board or any other American has. And it's even creeped to the state level, with guys like Perry getting bought off by Cintra for the TTC.
It's all bull , and has this country on the express lane to ruin.
Edited - that was a little over the top. But Congress still blows.
Last edited by Aggie Hoopsfan; 07-02-2007 at 08:52 PM.
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