Posted on 07/04/2007 3:43:49 PM PDT by upchuck
While governor of Texas, George W. Bush reviewed 153 writs of execution. He let executions proceed 152 times.
How lucky for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby that Bush has suddenly discovered his mercy gene.
On Monday, Bush commuted the 30-month prison sentence that Libby, former top aide to Vice President Cheney, received for perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to FBI agents in the strange case of the outed CIA agent.
In a half-a-loaf gambit, Bush let stand the conviction, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. Bush said that the sentence, while within guidelines for the crimes, was "harsh."
He also opined - stop us if you've heard this one before - that Libby and his family had suffered enough due to the strain of the trial and the stain on his reputation.
Isn't it funny how it's only the rich and powerful who are deemed to have suffered enough through the mere act of being tried for their crimes?
Do not fret for the Libby family finances. Rest assured that this designated conservative martyr will make more than enough on speaking fees and friendly sinecures to pay off his fine and legal bills.
This case is complex. But it can be explained in a few sentences, as long as you have not spent much time in the bizarro world of Fox-ified spin, where facts disappear beneath the vehement assertion of non-facts and non sequiturs.
The Bush administration, with Libby's former boss playing a lead role, justified the Iraq invasion through false assertions about Iraq's weapons programs and ties to 9/11. After the invasion, when critics began to question that tissue of hype and deception, the White House, acting in character, responded by attacking the critics' character.
One of those critics was a distinguished former diplomat, Joseph Wilson, who began telling people that, in 2002, he'd been dispatched to West Africa by the CIA to check one key administration claim: that Iraq had sought uranium for nuclear bombs from Niger. Wilson said he'd concluded that Iraq hadn't bought any uranium from Niger.
The counterattack included insinuations to reporters by administration members, including Libby, that Wilson's wife, a CIA agent named Valerie Plame, had arranged Wilson's trip as a kind of junket. (Never mind that the idea of a junket to Niger, one of the globe's poorest nations, is more hilarious than Stephen Colbert doing The Word.) When those rumors hit print, Plame's cover was blown.
Exposing an active agent can be a crime, so a special counsel was called in. Libby lied to that investigation. A jury convicted him of that. Game, set, match.
Except that the right-wingers who make up Bush's eroding base howled that sending Libby to prison would be a travesty. So Bush moved to placate.
Those howling about the cruelty of jail time for Libby are some of the same people who persevered for two years in trying to oust President Clinton for lying to investigators, bloviating endlessly about "the rule of law." Who crusade for tough mandatory sentencing laws that leave judges no discretion for leniency. Who lament Libby's loss of status, but have never expressed a moment's regret that Plame's CIA career ended at his hands.
Don't you just love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning?
The president apparently does. On Sept. 30, 2003, he said he wanted to find out who leaked Plame's name: "If the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of."
Well, Bush has indeed taken care of Scooter Libby.
Just not in the way most Americans thought he meant.
Hmmm... seems to me he still has the conviction, a hefty fine, two years of probation and he’ll probably loose his license to practice law. Not to mention the stress and strain to him and his family during this witch hunt. Scooter goes free? Doubt it!
“Don’t you just love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning?”
........Not since 1992-2000, had my fill back then.
Mr. Editor did you ever think that the 152 executions he lets stand were guilty and Libby wasnt?
The only thing Libby is guilty of is being in the wrong place when a prosecutor with nothing, needed something ,anything ,to show to his Democrat bosses.
So he took a shot at an innocent man and then he worked in league with a half assed judge and a liberal POS jury to get a conviction in a case that should never have come up.
The unattributed clown who wrote this crap needs to check his facts before he writes any more ...
Texas governors have very limited ability to pardon death sentences.
About all they can do is to take the board’s recommendation.
Comes fromthe days when Ma Furgeson, a governor, sold pardons to convicted murderers for about $10,000 apiece.
After that, Texas governors could no longer issue pardons at will. About all they do is sign the paper.
But of course anonymous knows that.
A mistrial should’ve been declared after that juror stepped forward to question why Scooter Libby was even on trial. (S)he said that (s)he voted to convict because they couldn’t convict Cheney.
What large differences exist between the travesties wrought by Nifong and Fitzpatrick?
Goebbels would be proud.
“The unattributed clown who wrote this crap needs to check his facts before he writes any more”
Bingo. That’s why the name is listed as it is.
In fact, when I first read this editorial I wondered if it was published by mistake.
PravdABDNC is very selective in their outrage. The man was framed by Russert and the case would have been laughed out of court if not for politics.
Normally the Stone Age Press would question being jailed while waiting for Appeal. You have to love their selective outrage.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Meanwhile, while nutant moron types amuck, the City of BROTHERLY LOVE is drowning in a sea of murder and blood!
There are enough bodies lying dead on the streets of Philadelphia that this MORON actually has to step overthem to get to his favorite state liquor store!!!!!!, but all he can find wrong in the world is a process crime in a nothing case.
Typical PA lib POS!
Yeah, like he might want to mention the fact that the City of Philadelphia's homicide rate in one year is more than double the number of executions George W. Bush allowed to proceed in almost six years of office in Texas.
What this writer fails to note is that has been shown fairly conclusively that the trip wasn't a junket, but part of a political dirty trick. It wasn't the mint tea Joe was after, it is what he achieved: hero lefty status. Never mind the liar stuff.
Probably one of the monkeys got out of the cage and made it to the computer and posted it before an editor got to it. You are aware that reporters cruelly test their stories on animals, don't you?
But if Texas governors could commute, then W should have done so for many of the condemned? I suppose that’s your point, Barb.
Maybe it was on his/her to-do list:
1) Check facts.
2) Ignore facts.
Keep in mind that the city this originates from, Philadelphia, is experiencing ever increasing levels of homicides under the leadership of John “The Brothers And Sisters Are Running This City!/Meanwhile I’ll Just Camp Out On The Sidewalk For An iPhone” Street. For the Philadelphia Inquirer with that backdrop to compare the rightful execution of 152 murderers in Texas with the railroading of an innocent man is stunningly beyond the normal hypocrisy of the MSM.
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