A Decision Made Largely Alone [Libby-Commuting the Jail Term]

Washington Post ^ | 7/3/07 | Michael Abramowitz

[Wally_Kalbacken]

For the first time in his presidency, Bush made a decision to commute a sentence without going through a process of running requests through lawyers at the Justice Department, White House officials said. He also did not ask the chief prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, for his input, as routinely happens in cases routed through the Justice Department's pardon attorney.

 

 

Q. And how long would that have taken?

A. Much longer than the time elapsed between the sentencing and the ruling today that he could not await the answer from the appeals process before beginning to serve time.

The Washington Post knows this - and should be doing some editing before peddling such rubbish. Oh, wait... they hate Bush. Never mind.

[Navy Patriot]

and no pardon coming later on...

I honestly don't know.

There is no doubt that the Fitzpervert investigation was enabled by Bush's directive and the targets were ordered to cooperate with the prosecutor. An astoundingly poor tactic and strategy, knowing the DemoRats. Rove and Libby complied, Monica Goodling (in a different perjury trap) didn't, and look at the results: Bush et all are branded criminals and the MSM won't go anywhere near Goodling, they know she's too smart for them.

[Maynerd]

This was no surprise. Libby was not going to prison. The President does what he believes is right, and he willingly takes the heat.

Bush only threw Libby a bone. He did not pardon Libby. Libby is still stuck with a 250K fine, two years probation, and a felony conviction which destroys his career.

Bush is certainly loyal to himself but not Libby. In my opinion he screwed Libby to placate the non-existent center. As LBJ once said " the only things in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armidillos."

[Darkwolf377]

There is a possibility that Bush operated in this manner so Libby could continue his appeal and be vindicated by an appeals court or by SCOTUS. A full pardon would have been final and ended all court action.

I respectfully submit you had it right in your first paragraph.

Bush hasn't done well with the bully pulpit, and any machinations--"controlling Fitz"--would have been clear as day.

This way, he gives Libby the opportunity to be FOUND not guilty. Then, there's simply nothing to say about it--done and done.

And if he's not successful on appeal, who knows? But I think Bush made the correct decision here, as he's so unpopular that anything done from the bully pulpit in Libby's defense would be seen as a cover-up of SOME kind by those who aren't paying close attention to the details of the case.

[Truth29]

Is there danger in continuing the appeal? If the conviction is overturned on appeal, could Fitzfong elect to retry Libby? For that matter, how much longer is the Special Prosecutor going to stay in business?

[gogeo]

Bush wanted to please every one but as usual ended up pleasing no one...

An unfortunate but accurate summary of his administration.

[Navy Patriot]

Bush hasn't done well with the bully pulpit, and any machinations--"controlling Fitz"--would have been clear as day.

I agree, but let's take this in two parts.

Bush being ineffective at the bully pulpit is ENTIRELY Bush's fault.

Further, it is the reason that "machinations" could be cast as such, rather than the reigning in of a Stalinist conspiratorial political prosecutor.

I propose that if part one was not true, part two would not be possible.

Let's review a few of W's mistakes:

Assuming the Presidency and not cleaning the government of leftie subversives in all the agencies that would subvert his Presidency.

Jumping forward: appointing a special prosecutor before appointing loyalists within the CIA to investigate Wilson and Plame the moment Wilson went public because he hadn't been required to sign a nondisclosure agreement with CIA (contrary to CIA SOP). The results of which would have exposed Wilson and Plame as liars and conspirators with middle east financial interests who knowingly delivered false intelligence to CIA. Declassify the report and take it public in the bully pulpit.

Now, about that special prosecutor.....

[Rb ver. 2.0]

“If the conviction is overturned on appeal, could Fitzfong elect to retry Libby?”

Nope.