Bush commutes Libby’s sentence – so?

First – an admission. I was told about a month ago that this would happen, by a source I can’t name. See? I keep promises. I guess I could’ve written it as a prediction a week or so ago and looked like a fricken genius, but I never got all wrapped up in the minutae of the case. I just made an off-handed comment to someone that the sentence was excessive and that the judge, Reggie B. Walton, was an asshole – that’s when my source told me the back story. So there’s still stuff I know that I’m not telling. By the way, I will tell you that Judge Walton is not an asshole – that’s all I’m saying at this point.

But let’s get to the drama queens – like Obama;

“This decision to commute the sentence of a man who compromised our national security cements the legacy of an administration characterized by a politics of cynicism and division, one that has consistently placed itself and its ideology above the law,” Obama said. “This is exactly the kind of politics we must change so we can begin restoring the American people’s faith in a government that puts the country’s progress ahead of the bitter partisanship of recent years.”

We already know that Libby didn’t leak Valerie Plame’s name to Bob Novak – the reason for the whole investigation in the first place. So, what national security issue are we talking about here, Barack? I wonder if he even knows what the case is about judging by that nonsensical statement.

“Today’s decision is yet another example that this administration simply considers itself above the law,” said Clinton of Bush’s decision to commute Libby’s sentence. “This case arose from the administration’s politicization of national security intelligence and its efforts to punish those who spoke out against its policies.

“Four years into the Iraq war, Americans are still living with the consequences of this White House’s efforts to quell dissent. This commutation sends the clear signal that in this Administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice.”

Does she think we just forgot about her first tour of the White House? Does she remember kathleen Wiley’s cat disappearing? Linda Tripp and others suffering the wrath of the IRS? And the only attempt to punish Joe Wilson for “speaking out” was made by Joe Wilson’s lyin’ mouth. Should I remind her that John Kerry dropped Wilson from his campaign website when it was proven that Wilson was nothing but a lying, self-serving primadonna?

And the prettiest candidate ev-ver, John Edwards;

“Only a president clinically incapable of understanding that mistakes have consequences could take the action he did today,” Edwards said. “President Bush has just sent exactly the wrong signal to the country and the world. In George Bush’s America, it is apparently okay to misuse intelligence for political gain, mislead prosecutors and lie to the FBI.

“George Bush and his cronies think they are above the law and the rest of us live with the consequences. The cause of equal justice in America took a serious blow today.”

Like John Edwards would know anything about being equal with the rest of us, or even anything about justice.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said: “The President’s decision to commute Mr. Libby’s sentence is disgraceful. Libby’s conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war. Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone.

“Judge Walton correctly determined that Libby deserved to be imprisoned for lying about a matter of national security,” Reid said. “The Constitution gives President Bush the power to commute sentences, but history will judge him harshly for using that power to benefit his own vice president’s chief of staff who was convicted of such a serious violation of law.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “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,” Pelosi said. “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.”

Reid and Pelosi had better check their hypocrisy meters on those statements and see how it pegs when the names William Jefferson and John Murtha are run through the meter. And it’s all hyperbole, any-damn-way.

All of those Democrats act as if the rule of law has been tossed out the window – one guy who got railroaded by an over-excited prosecutor got an unreasonable sentence commuted. That’s it. He wasn’t even the target of the investigation – just an ancillary player.

If they want to talk about breaches of national security and circumventing the rule of law, let’s talk about Sandy Berger and his reluctance to even meet the terms of his plea agreement. When the Democrats get their panties in a wad over that, maybe they’ll have some credibility on the Scooter Libby subject.

The Bloodthirsty Liberal has more on the hypocrisy, Crotchety Old Bastard thinks it was a weak decision (so does the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal), Curt at Flopping Aces thinks the Left’s reaction will be pure entertainment for the rest of us, the editorial board of the Washington Post, typically a useless opinion, says that “Scooter Libby’s prison sentence was excessive, but so is President Bush’s commutation.”

Mark Finkelstein at Newsbusters brings us the “Today” interview with Joe Wilson from this morning – as if Wilson has anything newsworthy to say about the case now. 

Wesley Pruden gives the President “one cheer, but no more than two”;

He spared Scooter Libby from prison, as decency demanded, but left intact a $250,000 fine, which can only be regarded as tribute to the venality of a special prosecutor and the vanity of a federal judge (both lawyers, after all).

I guess that’s the only time that we’ll read that Libby still got hit with a $1/4mil fine.

Category: Legal, Media, Politics, Society