By now, everybody knows that the worst president in the history of our country gave Scooter Libby a "get out of jail free" card. Right about now, conservatives are jerking themselves with copies of the constitution while listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Liberals are screaming to everyone (yet nobody in particular), uttering curses that the founding fathers allowed for such a devious clause to begin with.
Personally, I find the lame-duck in chief to be an utter pussy in this.
You can read Bush's "reasoning" for the decision right here. Instead of pardoning Scooter Libby, Bush simply commuted his sentence, axing the 30 months of jail time that Libby was convicted of (by a jury of peers, no less). Libby still has to pay a fine and serve probation. This is what makes Bush a pussy. By not pardoning Libby, Bush is admitting that he himself believes that Libby lied and committed the crime of perjury. In the eyes of Bush, he's basically admitting that "yeah, Libby committed perjury to save Cheney's ass...but in this case, perjury is only worth a fine and probabtion, not jail time". If Bush truly thought Libby was completely innocent, why the hell didn't he just pardon him? Why just commute the jail term?
Because he wants to have it both ways. He isn't man enough to deal with the political fallout the word "pardon" brings, so he tries to skate around it by making it seem like a fine and probation is a tough sentence. Regardless of whether or not you believe Libby lied or didn't lie, the fact that Bush saved one of his cronies from prison is just another example of the joke the presidency has become. I guarantee you, tomorrow morning, every conservative talking point is going to bring up Bill Clinton and his pardons. They'll bring up Clinton to do what they always do: deflect attention away from what's happening right now. And you know what? Those pardons were a joke as well. They are indefensible. The pardon of Marc Rich was one of the lowlights of the Clinton presidency and most liberals would agree with that.
I'm actually happy Bush did this. The fact that he was too much of a pussy to announce the decision from the White House (gotta love those press releases!) and the fact that he did it during the 4th of July holiday when most Americans are traveling and have other things on their minds shows what kind of a cowardly douche he is. Maybe now the American people will actually grow a damn spine and voice their displeasure with how things are going in this country. Maybe now the Democrats will step up and say "Bush is a loser, and so was Clinton for his pardons...now is the time for a constitutional showdown". Somehow I doubt that will happen.
The sad fact is that even if the Democrats wanted to do something about it, they can't. Impeachment will go nowhere. They can bitch about this pardon, but it's completely within Bush's constitutional right, i.e. legal. They can subpoena the shit out of everyone in the administration, but executive privilege will put a stop to that and it's clear that even if they did catch someone, Bush would just pardon them or "commute" their sentence anyway. So in the end, what you have here is Democrats pulling their hair out over something they can't do anything about, Republicans scared out of their minds that Bush just delivered a bomb to next year's election chances, and Bush sitting in the white house, praying to his god for direction as to what to do about Libby....his god must have answered...
"Let him go to trial. Let the jury convict him. Let the Republican appointed judges condemn him. When the appeals court denies his plea to stay out of jail during the appeals process, immediately commute his sentence. That's what I want. So it shall be written, so it shall be done."
If Bush had any of these so-called "morals" his supporters cry about, then his reasoning for the commuting of Libby's sentence shouldn't have been bogus crap about respecting the court's decision, or feeling that the sentence was too harsh (since it was well within legal jurisdiction and upheld by GOoPer appointed judges, no less) and just come out and say "This trial was ludicrous, in my opinion, and I think this man was wrongly convicted, therefore I am pardoning him". But Bush wouldn't do that:
he's a pussy.
1 comment:
Nice blog, I'll definitely add it to my regular reads.
The whole Libby ordeal, though... the fact that he was even tried was a farce. Sandy Berger can literally smuggle secret documents out of the National Archives and destroy them to protect his former boss, and he gets a mere fine. On the other hand, Libby does... whatever it was he's supposed to have done (nobody can really explain it very well; he's guilty of being a Republican, basically) and you'd think he should have gotten the chair.
Everyone now knows that Richard Armitage was the real "leaker". Even Patrick Fitzgerald has indicated that he knew this prior to even charging Libby. Armitage has been charged with NOTHING, and no one seems to care - which proves to me that this case was never about Valerie Plame, but always about trying to get top Bush people. Rove or Cheney were the big game trophies, but since they couldn't be had, Nifong... er, I mean Fitzgerald (I get them confused, since they behave so similarly) took what he could get: Li'l ol Scooter Libby.
I remember going over all of that with another liberal message-board pal of mine (Beerorkid), providing him copious links from "straight" news sources like cnn.com, etc (read: NOT just conservative blogs or talk shows).
He finally came around, sort of, but was still rockin' the schadenfreude over a Bush guy getting hosed. Sort of like: Yeah, you're right, but I'm still happy Bush's guy is having his life ruined. It's BDS: Bush Derangement Syndrome.
Now, as to your assertion that Bush is a weenie for not giving a true pardon: I AGREE with you on that! I voted for Bush, but lately I just don't get what he's thinking. The opposition hates him so bitterly, there's nothing he can do to make them happy, so he may as well be more assertive. Go ahead and give the pardon; your enemies can't possibly hate you any more than they already do so why be timid?
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