Bush Will Commute Libby's Sentence

Originally posted by FlyersFan
You got it completely wrong while you were trying to get it straight. AND you added a few things that weren't even said. Try again.

Well, if you don't mind I'm going to pass on trying again because there are a whole lot of American commentators doing a much better job than I am...the line forms on your left...but the House Majority leader you guys elected heads it:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California
“The President’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence does not serve justice, condones criminal conduct, and is a betrayal of trust of the American people. The President said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak case. By his action today, the President shows his word is not to be believed. He has abandoned all sense of fairness when it comes to justice, he has failed to uphold the rule of law, and he has failed to hold his Administration accountable”. politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...-682

Seems to cover it...

Oh, and Desert? While I was apologising for David Frum, I forgot to mention Conrad Black (who is also being prosecuted by Fitzpatrick's office). Sorry about him, too. Since he dumped his Canadian citizenship to accept a peerage, he's been know around these parts as "His Lardship"...and that would be even funnier if you've ever heard a Newfoundland accent.

So, Happy Independence Day down there tomorrow, y'all. Have fun, be safe.

Originally posted by FlyersFan

a public servant,

Ahhhhhhhhh ... the good old days when politicians were public servants and not politicians. Those days are looooooong gone. Public servants are few and far between now ... aren't they? Sad.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Libby wasn't a politician, he was a public servant...an apparatchik. Nobody cast a ballot for him, so he is only accountable to his superiors and/or the law.

I have been thinking about why this commutation bothers me so much.

It isn't because I'm vindictive and want to see Libby harshly punished. On the contrary, I am forgiving, and reluctant to judge anybody.

I do, on the other hand, expect the government of the United States of America to be accountable for its actions. This latest counter-example to that just underscores the lack thereof.

So lets recount, shall we?

WMDs, no WMDs. Iraq-Al Qaida link, no Iraq-Al Qaida link (of course we now have Al Qaida in Iraq, of our own making). Yellow cake, no yellow cake. Saddam-911, no Saddam-911. No extraordinary rendition, extraordinary rendition. No covert European CIA prisons, covert European CIA prisons. Did I leave any whoppers out? Please feel free to add to the list.

Accountability? No accountability.

More partisan bickering to come.

The Dems are running with this to fire up their base and vice versa on the Republican side. People, both sides are in on this. Don't let Hillary use this. This is how they keep dividing us. Let it go! The people need to keep their focus on the things that affect all of us. This does not affect any of us. This is all a calculated diversion. Damnit people wake up!!!

Peace

What an injustice. Libby's jail time should be proportonial to the damage he caused this country and should pay for the hideous crimes that were commited against Valarie Plame. What am I saying? No jail time, no crime. It appears that justice was done after all.

He deserves the fine for perjury, but when you lie to cover up the lies from the accusers, how much punishment should you actually get?

diversion or whatever, if Bush can pass out the get out of free card to his buddy libby the purjurer, he most definately can pass a few out to the two border patrol agents that are sitting in jail, unless of course they've got beaten half to death again, then they might be laying in a hospital bed....

but by God, let's divert the diversion right to them!!

Hang on to your hats folks.

Bush might grant Libby a full pardon.

President Bush today refused to rule out a pardon for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, one day after he spared the former White House aide prison time by commuting the 30-month sentence imposed after Libby's perjury conviction in the CIA leak case.

"As to the future, I rule nothing in and nothing out," the president told reporters after visiting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. A full pardon would wipe clean Libby's criminal record. The commuted prison sentence leaves Libby's conviction in place, along with a $250,000 fine and two years probation.

www.washingtonpost.com

Based on information in the article, I think that if Bush wanted to pardon Libby, he'd have done it yesterday.

Yet, in January 2009, when the political fallout will be exactly zero and the Libby name will be again synonymous with canned vegetables, it just might happen.


[edit on 2007/7/3 by GradyPhilpott]

May I, just this one time, say, "I told you so"!?

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
This may not be over. Bush can (and probably will) still pardon him. He took the fall. Of course he must be rewarded.

There's no doubt in my mind that the pres played this as close to the cuff as he could. He didn't want to let Libby go to jail, so he did the least he could get away with, leaving the placeholder of a fine and probation in place to make it look like Libby was getting punished ( )

Once the party has nothing to lose, Libby will get his pardon.

Libby still gets to have his appeal, he just won't have to wait in jail till that happens. Libby will be exonerated on appeal and everything will be fine.

If by chance the appeals court makes another bad decision, then the full pardon will come. No probation...no $250,000 fine either way!

30 months of jail time and a $250,000 fine is absurd if you compare it to the punishment Sandy Ber(l)er got for stealing documents out of the National Archives for Bill Clinton. What was Berg(l)ers punishment? $10,000??? and no jail time?

Any Democrat crying about this needs to look at Bill Clinton's pardons during his terms in office.

www.usdoj.gov...

This list is amazing, in a pathetic way.

Originally posted by RRconservative
Libby still gets to have his appeal, he just won't have to wait in jail till that happens. Libby will be exonerated on appeal and everything will be fine.

I hope you're right about that. Not that it would make any difference to me, but it would chap a few buns on the left.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
but it would chap a few buns on the left.

See? It's not about the issue at all, or justice or what's fair, but about how you can hurt the "other team". This is so sad. :shk:

Now Grady, chapping a few buns on the left does make a difference to you, doesn't it? So let's not be coy. Its more fun that way.

And that's ok, the chapping, you know, but in the end, in some objective sense not determined by partisanship, there must be a fundamental balance, again, not determined by us, maintained. It is obvious things are out of whack. The right says the left is to blame, the left says the right.

I say we all are, for tolerating our differences in the midst of all this suffering, and destruction, and descent into eventual chaos. At some point we all will have to say enough is enough, or the circumstances we create will say it for us.

Its hard to find common ground when there's nothing left to stand on.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
This is so sad.

Oh, for Christ's sake.

How many ways can I say I don't give a flip about this case and when will some people stop using every turn of a phrase for an excuse to express outrage? :no emoticon:

Wouldn't it mean something if the appeals court did overturn the sentence?

Would that be a travesty of justice?


[edit on 2007/7/3 by GradyPhilpott]

This is funny! Ya'll have to read this. Hillary is blasting Bush for commuting Libby's sentence .. but in the same breathe she's backing her husband's 140 highly questionable pardons from pardon-gate.

Oh man. Story Here

FF, I don't have to read the story. Once again it's ok if "my team" does it, but it's detestable if "your team" does.

IR, you've got it right, I believe.

Grady, you may not care about this particular case, but you sure care about slapping the other team, when really we should be all on the same team.

For Joseph Wilson's comments on Scooter's 'get outta jail free card', follow this URL:
www.youtube.com...
Both his comments and his vocabulary are interesting, to say the least. I'm thinkin' he's bitter. Funny how these political machinations serve to polarise the people when they really ought to be pulling together.

It's really quite simple, isn't it?

June 10, 2004: Bush answered ``Yes'' when asked whether he would fire anyone who leaked Plame's name.

July 18, 2005: Bush Vows to Fire Anyone Convicted of Leak

nationalreview.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Feb. 13, 2006: ...special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done "covert work overseas" on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA "was making specific efforts to conceal" her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge's opinion...Libby testified he was told about Plame by Cheney "in an off sort of curiosity sort of fashion" in mid-June—before he talked about her with Miller and Time magazine's Matt Cooper.

March 6, 2007: Libby convicted on four of the five counts- two counts of perjury...one count of obstruction of justice in a grand jury investigation...one count of making false statements to federal investigators...

June 5, 2007: Libby sentenced to 30 months in prison...

July 2, 2007: Bush spares Libby from prison...

July 3, 2007: Bush Says Pardon for Libby Remains on the Table

And people are still defending Bush on this one?

:shk:

Wouldn't it mean something if the appeals court did overturn the sentence?

Yes. It would mean a lot more than this application of the pre-emptive strike doctrine to the justice process in this country. I say let the justice system do its job in this case, and avoid this overwhelming sense of impropriety. It would go a long way toward dealing with the outrage people rightly feel at times like these.

Good to be on the same page with you, BH. Thanks for the encouragement.

Originally posted by jsobecky

Originally posted by desert


But wait! There's more, Johnny! Look at who got Presidential Medals of Freedom...

Yeah, and look at who got a Nobel Peace Prize - Yasser Arafat!

If I remember correctly, Arafat shared that medal with 2 Israelis.

To JohnnyCanuck, thank you for the wishes for a Happy Independence Day. I trust your July 1 was safe and fun for you. Re Conrad Black--is he being fickle with his US citizenship, wanting to return to Canadian citizenship, now that he got his prize?
You mentioned Canadian comedians, which makes me think of comedy and timing. The timing of the commutation makes it look bad

Libby certainly knows about Presidential pardons. He was the lawyer for Marc Rich, a controversial Clinton pardon.

The following originally posted by Jsobecky.

Want some real pardons? Look at Clinton. He routinely pardoned drug dealers. Oh yeah, and he pardoned a guy named Marc Rich. In contrast, Bush, and his father before him, are/were notoriously stingy when it comes to pardons.

Found the following rather interesting...

www.uruknet.de...

One can argue that Clinton pardoned Rich expecting some financial benefit, but it is quite likely that the pardon also protected Rich associates, probably including oil people. The pardon stopped Federal investigation and prosecution of Rich and so very likely benefited powerful people inside and outside the U.S.

Scooter Libby was Marc Rich’s lawyer at the time, and he went to Congress to defend the pardon.

Well what a bizarre turn of events. Funny how these same names seem to crop up over and over again in so many places and so many scandals