A Bushie Does the Crime, the Law Gets Slimed (Updated) 6
How incredibly–sorry, after six years, all to credibly–venal.
(snip)
“With the denial of bail being upheld and incarceration imminent, I believe it is now important to react to that decision,” Bush said in a statement issued by the White House early this evening. Although the president said he “respected” the jury’s verdict, he added that he had “concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive.”
Note that Mr. Libby’s sentence was three months less that Bush’s own (yes, it’s his, and we are stuck with it) Supreme Court found quite reasonable for the offenses in question.
This is the same Supreme Court that seems to think that we are a colorblind society (link updated) and that price-fixing is okay.
Addendum, 7/2/2007:
To no one’s surprise, there has been lots of comment in the Left Blogosphere about this.
Keith Olbermann also devoted almost half his show to it tonight.
But the most trenchant comment I saw was from Steve just up the road at ASZ (emphasis added):
July 3, 2007 at 12:16 am
I think I’m going to be ill.
He didn’t pardon him. It’ll be in the mail tomorrow.
July 3, 2007 at 4:09 pm
It’s just business as usual for inside the Beltway. Neither side can claim the high ground on this issue as far as I’m concerned. You don’t have to look too hard to find numerous examples by both Democratic and Republican presidents.
President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich (a fine American who made money illegally trading with the Iranians during the hostage crisis), Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory, and commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN along with about 140 other pardons and commutations on his final day in office.
President George H. W. Bush’s pardoned six Reagan administration officials accused or convicted in connection with the Iran-Contra affair.
President Ford pardoned Nixon. Most “experts” now consider that to be a moment of great political courage on the part of President Ford. It was not, however, considered so at the time by most Democrats. Of course, the pardon of Libby won’t fall into the category of “…moments of great political courage…”
This country will continue to be a mess until our so-called leaders stop seeing good in only those things they can use against the other party and start looking for what’s actually good for the country. The two are usually not the same.
I know they’re all lying to us – their lips are moving.
July 4, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Certainly Clinton’s pardon of Rich was rather slimy. But note that it did come at the end of his tenure and did not involve questions of statecraft.
Dan Froomkin’s column today is worth a look; he advances a theory, but it is a persuasive piece of reasoning.. Follow the link for the full column and for his citations:
Disregarding political differences, there are Not Nice People.
July 4, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Quiz Question: Who was Marc Rich’s attorney?
July 4, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Scooter.
July 5, 2007 at 12:04 am
Yup. Is that irony or what?