Mike the Usurper wrote:
adam wrote:
President Bush said today that he had used his power of clemency to commute the 30-month sentence for I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, who was convicted of perjury in March and was due to begin serving his time within weeks.
oh the comedy value!
There's no comedy value in this. Scooter Libby broke the law and did so with the purpose of preventing the grand jury from finding out what the hell really did happen in outing Valerie Plame. That's why he was prosecuted and that's what he convicted of. We still don't know what happened.
The White House talking point on this is that there wasn't a crime, so how can you find him guilty of covering up something that's not a crime? That's insulting. First, Plame was a covert agent, so there is the identities law which may have been broken. That one is incredibly hard to prove, but it's definitely law. Second, when Plame was burned, the entire cover company was burned with her. This caused US intelligence capabilities on Weapons of Mass Destruction for the Middle East to be seriously damaged. While some will debate whether or what happened on that score is a crime (it would likely fall under providing aid to the enemy) there is no question it was of direct harm to the national security. Burning Valerie Plame did direct harm to the country, and Scooter Libby stopped anyone from finding out who did that.
That's all the past, and who is actually responsible can only be someone above Libby, because you don't lie to cover for someone under you, and if you get caught lying to cover someone under you, the average guy will fess up to avoid what Scooter just went through. That's not plausible. That means the persons responsible fall on a very short list, Bush, Cheney, Rove, maybe Addington or Gonzales.
Libby also just got something exceedingly rare. In 6 years as Texas Governor, Bush issued a total of 16 pardons, no commutations are listed. Since becoming president, he has issued 113 pardons and 3 commutations, a partial list is here. His pardons as governor were the fewest of any Texas governor since World War II, and as President, the president issuing the fewest is his father, although with adjustment for being over two years into the second term, they're about even if we adjust for the longer term. Reagan did them at roughly double their rate or more.
What this demonstrates more than anything else, this White House doesn't give a damn about what the people, the congress or the courts say, they're going to do whatever they want and use the people, congress and courts to do it. Scooter Libby broke the law, and in keeping with the guidelines from the courts, he was given a sentence of 30 months in jail and a $250,000 fine. Bush nullified that, something noted above pretty much never happens.
The oath of office is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. This administration has repeatedly ignored that duty and this action is simply the latest in a long string saying "we're above the law." It is time for impeachment for violating their oaths of office, for damaging the security of the nation for political ends, and for subverting justice as seen here and in their efforts to turn the Justice Department, and through it law enforcement, into an arm of their political party. This is not Stalinist Russia, nor Franco's Spain, nor Pinochet's Chile, nor Marcos' Philippines, nor Musolini's Italy. This is Our America, and it's time to stand up and get it back.
there is immense comedy value in this because it's so utterly absurd and corrupt and such a fundamental distortion of certain values which I hold dear -- this is your President's mercy -- where was his mercy when he signed death sentences -- where is his mercy for the soldiers dying in Iraq, and maimed, and attempting suicide, and alcoholic, and addicted to drugs because of the trauma they've been through
