Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found the exact amount of injustice which will be imposed upon them. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglas
US President George W. Bush has told a federal court and the federal court of appeals to take a hike and overruled the sentence of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, Scooter Libby. Libby was found guilty in March of lying and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame case. He was found guilty on 4 of 5 counts. (Plame, wife of former Ambassador Joe Wilson was outed as a CIA employee)
The case has hung over the White House for five years. Bush commuted the prison sentence five hours before Libby was to report to the jail.
After CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name appeared in a 2003 syndicated newspaper column, Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald questioned top administration officials, including Bush and Cheney, about their possible roles.
Nobody was ever charged with the leak, including Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage or White House political adviser Karl Rove, who provided the information for the original article. Prosecutors said Libby obstructed the investigation by lying about how he learned about Plame and whom he told.
Wow.
Street Prophets:
Whatever else you want to say about conservative Christians, they believe in doing the right thing. They believe in everyone doing the right thing. I don’t call (at least some of) them “authoritarians” for nothing, and it’s this scripture among others that undergirds the respect for authority. But if the law doesn’t apply equally, there is no mutuality in obedience to the law, and the foundations of their moral life is a mockery. As Paul says:
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covetâ€; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.†Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Giving a convicted felon a pass on his prison sentence while his buddies pay his fine and set him up with a comfy consulting position is practically the definition of wronging your neighbor for a lot of people. I wouldn’t bet against a massive outbreak of hypocrisy on the Christian right, but Bush and his pals shouldn’t expect a thing from the faith and values crowd from here on out. After all, he’s just cut the one cord that bound them together: their belief in him as an excruciatingly upright man. They put their trust and faith in his leadership, and he spat in their face.
With this pardon, Bush just took out his moral compass and stomped on it in full view of the conservative Christian leadership. I’d say he owes a lot of believers an apology, wouldn’t you?
Washington watchers expect since Libby ‘ kept his mouth shut and took one for the team’ he will receive a full pardon from the President by the end of the year. Justice Department guidelines recommend supplicants wait five years after conviction or release. A President is not bound by those recommendations.
Bush has granted fewer pardons — 113 — than any president in the past 100 years, while denying more than 1,000 requests, said Margaret Colgate Love, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997.
In addition, Bush has denied more than 4,000 commutation requests, and hundreds of requests for pardons and commutations are still pending, Love said. Bloomberg News
Some Washington reaction
Media Bloggers Association coverage of the Libby trial
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
WHEREAS Lewis Libby was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in the case United States v. Libby, Crim. No. 05-394 (RBW), for which a sentence of 30 months’ imprisonment, 2 years’ supervised release, a fine of $250,000, and a special assessment of $400 was imposed on June 22, 2007;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, pursuant to my powers under Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, do hereby commute the prison terms imposed by the sentence upon the said Lewis Libby to expire immediately, leaving intact and in effect the two-year term of supervised release, with all its conditions, and all other components of the sentence.
IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand and seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Tomorrow, July 4th, is Independence Day in the US.
Of all presidential perks, the pardon power has a special significance. It is just the kind of authority that would attract the special attention of someone obsessed with himself and his own ability to influence events. – Barbara Olsen
I wish you had been writing when Bill Clinton fully pardoned (not just commuted the sentence of) multitudes of real criminals who paid money for the privilege, all just as he was leaving office. I wonder what you would say about Bill Clinton.
Hi Randy: I wonder.
I honestly don’t know.
Clinton didn’t stand out, I didn’t pay much attention to him.
If Clinton commuted/pardoned anyone serving in his government that lied, abused their office, obstructed justice and was convicted under your laws for doing so, it would be just as wrong as what your current president just did.
We don’t have a 15% supposedly critical party base that expects nor wants the PM to be theologian in chief, nor are we locked into a two party system.
Canada has more than our share of rogues. (think Adscam) If the any of the convicted had their sentences commuted by Ottawa, of course I’d speak up.
Canadians are far more cynical of government (particularly federal) criticism is a national sport here.
One thing I have to not forget with my US friends is we didn’t grow up perceiving Ottawa as an extension of us; disgust at Washington is not disgust of the citizens of the US. I remain respectfully aware that distinction is often lost in discussion because your republic is ‘we the people.’
Have a great 4th of July.