Guest blogged from D.C. by Margie Burns
The total commutation of Libby’s sentence should put an end to any questions, if any remain, about whether the Bush-Cheney cabal is completely crooked.
Briefly: the published statement for public consumption that the president found Libby’s sentence “excessive†is transparently false. If he had merely found the sentence excessive, he could have commuted it PARTLY. Two and a half years could have been reduced to two, or to one and a half, or to one year. It could have been drastically commuted to six months, or to three months.
That did not happen. Instead, George Walker Bush elevated smarmy propagandists like Byron York over federal judges. He elevated Charles Krauthammer over three U.S. Circuit Court Judges appointed by three former presidents. (Not that Krauthammer’s first reaction after Libby was indicted was to defend Libby. Au contraire: Krauthammer took the line, on ABC’s Inside Washington, that Libby’s actions were the work of one man, namely Libby. Neocon loyalty at work – until the echo chamber pulled Krauthammer back in line.) Bush elevated rightwing talk show hosts, the creepy National Review, Fox television and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and the now-moribund PNAC over the U.S. justice system.
Typical for him, that.
We won’t finish paying for the wholesale erosion of the justice system for a while. And there is scant consolation that Bush will also pay. Nobody in his right mind thinks that Mr. Libby is the object of widespread public adulation. Even the opinion polls show otherwise. At the moment, even the large media outlets are claiming merely that Libby’s getting off will please the president’s “base†– a term used far more often than it is defined. Personally I would take even that claim with a grain of salt. If the “base,†as that term is generally used, includes devout Christians and/or social conservatives, neither of those groups is going to be thrilled to see Libby relieved of all discipline. For one thing, neither group was ever all that sold on Libby, surmising accurately that Libby was never going to go to the mat for them either.
The hurried and abject quality of the commutation does suggest pressures on the president, and maybe even some kind of ultimatum. But the easy hypotheses are too easy.
1) As already suggested, I do not necessarily buy that the “base†demanded and got Libby’s walking. 2) Influenced at this stage by the informed writing of Elizabeth de la Vega on this topic, I also don’t believe that Libby could easily have helped mount a court case against Bush et al.
But undoubtedly information in Libby’s possession would amount to evidence for impeachment. And it was probably useful to Bush to puncture one immediate source of an impeachment threat virtually right in front of Vladimir Putin’s eyes. Furthermore, disclosure of Libby’s information would undoubtedly lead to equally damning information in the possession of other administration personnel.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, a good prosecutor with a good team, early on compared the defendant’s actions to throwing sand in the umpire’s face. Now we’ve got the White House doing the same, and doing it openly, and doing it at an even higher level and on a larger scale. This action really should demonstrate, beyond any doubt, the attitude of this WH toward talent and effort.
On the purely local level — I’m glad I’m getting out of town for July the Fourth. When I first moved to the DC area, I was childless, no dependents; the joke that a good license-plate motto for DC would be “DC: motto: No Radiation Sickness†seemed funny.
Times have changed.
Speaking of radiation, we’re the victims of a lack of adequate reporting, to put it nicely, about Bush’s feeble negotiations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Suffice it to say that “missile shield†means “missiles.†I am always in favor of genuinely reducing global tensions, but there is no gigantic super-plastic ‘shield’ going up, to protect us from missiles. “Missile defense,†to these guys, always means more missiles. Period, final, that’s it. So the temporary solution to bring Putin on board with more US missiles in the Czech Republic and Poland – something Putin understandably does not want – is to allow, or help, Putin to base a corresponding expansion of Russian missile power in the Federation countries of the former Soviet Union. It’s much along the lines of the ‘compromise’ that allows Libby to avoid all prison time, placating an entrenched and powerful interest group that always touts itself as representing some larger population.
Bush didn’t please the ‘base.’ He pleased just enough of the entrenched no-talents and propagandists in rightwing and corporate media outlets to buy himself a little more time, trying desperately to stave off wider discussion about impeachment. Meanwhile, that destructively early 2008 primary season sucks all the oxygen out of political discussion on the topics we need most to be talking about.
Although I really just skimmed your paranoid rambling. I must have missed where you responsibly mentioned that Libby has to pay a quarter of a million dollar fine and do 2 or 3 years probation. You may not think it justice, but it should have been mentioned……… to be fair. It makes you look deceitful when you don’t tell the whole story…..or isn’t that what you people always say of the President?
And by the way. Libby was only convicted of perjury. What was former President Clinton’s sentence for his non conviction of the same crime? He never will pay for lying to the whole country. And his “base” still applauds him for what a smooth liar he was…. WOW!
If your going to blather on and on,……at least be fair.
I agree. Let’s be fair and honest.Would Bush have done this if Libby were a Democrat? Would the Republicans push for Libby to be pardoned if he were a Democrat?
You may not think it justice, but it should have been mentioned……… to be fair.That Plame was looking for REAL WMD ,wait for it , in IRAN , go figure !
This action by the prez (Libby) today is a coverup.
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007...0089/#comments
THE SPEAKER’S COMMENT PAGE
http://speaker.gov/contact/
go there and make sure you are respectful, get her as incensed as we are, Jane’s word is better then mine get her as “outraged†as we arewhen addressing the speaker, please suggest she have a MAJOR press conferance, suggest she make it the biggest conferance of the most important nature to dategive her some suggestions, her speach writer is excellant but I’m sure we’ve thought of some choice things to say that her writers have not considered
once again, the speakers comment page
http://speaker.gov/contact/
Now we have a story …
Responding to Mitch Coady, above: I appreciate sincere zeal from a citizen who wants to help Libby, out of human sympathy. But false accusations against me are not help for Libby.
If length and time had not been factors, I cd also have mentioned that Libby was actually sentenced to four prison terms, one for each count on which the jury found him guilty. The judge set the terms to run concurrently with each other: Libby received a sentence of 30 months for Count 1, obstruction of justice; six months for Count 2, making false statements to investigators; 24 months for Count 4, perjury (making false declarations to the grand jury); and 15 months for Count 5, also perjury before the grand jury. Judge Walton had thus already reduced the prison time by making the sentences concurrent, a fact not acknowledged in the White House statements. However, Bush’s Grant of Executive Clemency itself is careful to commute all of Libby’s prison sentences.
The 2 White House statements also do not mention — and I didn’t either — that Libby’s sentence fell within federal sentencing guidelines, no longer mandatory.
And a Black Hole in the fabric of Constitutional Just US.
Mitch Coady you obsequious tweeker, the system had already been fairer to Libby than you or I or any non-Republican operative would ever get. The crooked little geek had over 5 million in his Tucker’s Daddy Loves Me money box, and he no doubt has some claim to the Cheneyburton billions. How hard do you want to suck up? Maybe his shoes could be polished or you could pick up his dry cleaning? He is a convicted criminal and Bush, like his dad, has pardoned someone who could testify against him. Mob rules, game over, goodnight democracy.
Maybe we can harvest the energy of our founding fathers spinning in their graves as a kind of free energy source.
Libby will not pay any fine at all – his buddies will pay it for him. In fact, he will probably end up with a book deal and make money off of his crimes. There is doubt that he will even have to serve probation, since probation is generally served after you’ve finished your jail time. Nor will he lose his reputation, at least among those who matter to him. On the contrary, they will consider him a hero and a martyr, and he’ll probably go and work for the American Enterprise Institute or some other right-wing think tank at an inflated salary, like Wolfowitz. Therefore, he gets off scot-free.
Incidentally, is Mr. Bush planning on commuting the sentences of all the other people who are serving similar sentences for similar crimes, if he thinks that 30 months is excessive?
Perhaps you’ve forgotten that in Neo-Con World, losing your “reputation” results in advancement? Medals Of Freedom and “Ollie North,” anyone??
The right wing is always ready to pardon their own crimes and willing it crucify everyone else for not following their rules of law. Typical hypocrisy has been their stock trade, and to hell with the Constitution and fair and balanced justice for all. Right wing world reminds me of Nazis Germany