Justice 101, Republican style...
It Takes Libby Nearly Three Days to Pay His Quarter Mil Fine
Well, that was easy. Less than 72 hours after President Bush commuted Scooter Libby's jail sentence (and that includes a national holiday), erstwhile Prisoner 28301-016 paid his financial debt to society. Cheney's Cheney's $250,400 check -- 250 grand, plus a $400 "special assessment" -- was posted on the U.S. District Court's docket this afternoon. So much for the financial hardship his supporters had touted in defending Bush's actions.
There was Tony Snow on Tuesday, strumming his air violin while throwing down the let's-see-you-pay-that gauntlet to reporters: "A quick show of hands: how many people in this room think that $250,000 is a wrist slap?...It is a lot of money."
And Mel Sembler, aka Ambassador de Sade, chairman of the Libby Legal Defense Trust, made a big point of telling reporters that Libby wouldn't be using any of the close to $5 million in trust fund money to pay the fine.
But, even without the help, Scooter seems to have come up with the quarter-mil without too much trouble.
Maybe he was able to get a quick Pay Day Loan. Or maybe he already has a cushy consulting gig lined up from one of the big money backers that populate his defense fund's advisory committee. Or maybe he smells a book deal advance coming (publishers might be anxious for another round of his unique brand of bestiality porn now that his profile is so much higher).
In any case, with Libby's two years of supervised probation now in doubt, what Snow called Libby's "very severe penalty" is looking less and less severe. Prison time: nope. Fine: paid. Probation: called into question.
Hmm, what's that sound? Anybody hear a wrist slap coming from the Oval Office?
Huff
Ummmm....
Libby's secret defense fund
How much of the money given to Cheney's former aide will come from Halliburton et al.? The public now has no way to know.
By Joe Conason
SalonPage 1November 15, 2005 | I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby may have taken the perp walk for the Bush White House, but he will never walk alone. As the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney considers his options -- including possible cooperation with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald -- friends of the administration are rallying to his side. Unlike his old boss Cheney, the indicted Libby lacks the millions of dollars needed to mount a proper Washington scandal defense, but evidently he will have no trouble attracting the assistance of right-wing operatives, administration aides and Republican lobbyists.
Actually, someone who personifies all those categories and more has materialized to mastermind the Scooter Libby defense committee, with promises of financial assistance and supportive publicity.
Her name is Barbara Comstock, a minor figure from the Whitewater era, when she served as "chief investigator" for Rep. Dan Burton, the wigged-out Indiana congressman who once executed a watermelon to demonstrate his sinister theory concerning the fate of Vince Foster, the White House counsel who committed suicide in 1993. During those glory years, she joined David Brock and the rest of the Republican pack in the hunting of Bill and Hillary Clinton. In his memoir, "Blinded by the Right," Brock described Comstock as almost unhinged in her passion to bring down the Clintons.
Comstock calmed down enough to serve as director of public affairs in John Ashcroft's Justice Department, to run opposition research for the Republican National Committee and, ultimately, after leaving government, to join the powerhouse lobbying firm of Blank Rome, best known for its huge contributions to the Republican Party, its close association with former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and other Bush appointees, and its lucky clientele of DHS contractors.
Is there something wrong with this picture? The most illuminating way to answer that question, perhaps, is to imagine what Comstock and others of her ilk might have said if the same situation had obtained during the Clinton administration.
See, no hidden scandal here, move along...
Who said it was a "secret" defense fund? Most of the blogs I read linked to the website for his legal defense fund.
And, $250,000.00 is still a lot of money...no matter who's paying it. It's certainly money that could have been put to better use than paying a silly fine.
You're an idiot.
How much did Clinton fine Marc Rich again? $100,000,000
250K is a night with rich gannon for these crooks...
Okay, you're still an idiot.
It's not a lot of money if someone else is paying it for me.
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