As House Democrats talk of investigating and even censuring President Bush’s commutation of his sentence, Scooter Libby is being compared by Republicans to Marc Rich, the recipient of Bill Clinton’s pardoning largesse.
This debate promises to be more tonic for the state of public morality than the one that would have been followed Bush’s failure to do so.
Imagine the righteous fury of Rush Limbaugh and right-wing bloggers playing Zola to Libby’s Captain Dreyfus with photoshopped images of Cheney’s former chief of staff in prison stripes with numbers on his chest. Compare that to their muttering and bumbling defense of the commutation.
Libby as rescued loser serves the cause of exposing Bush-Cheney lawlessness much better than Libby the martyr would have.
"We're trying to examine the use and misuse of the clemency power and the commutation power," says John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee as Rep. Robert Wexler drafts a resolution to censure Bush for "an unconscionable abuse of authority."
With the coming Senate showdown over subpoenas of White House witnesses in the U.S. Attorneys scandal, this proposed examining and censuring, although it will lead nowhere, is a nice side show to the main attraction.
Showing posts with label commutation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commutation. Show all posts
Monday, July 09, 2007
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Arkansan for "Chutzpah"
The President’s Press Secretary Tony Snow asked a linguistics question today in response to the Clintons’ criticism of President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence.
Always eager to further the education of the White House culturally deprived, herewith a definition: Chutzpah is an old Ozark expression for the meshugas of taking a nation into war by lying, trying to discredit those who expose the lies and then, when one of the smearers is caught and convicted, sanctimoniously springing him for self-protection.
Gezundtheit, Mr. Press Secretary.
Always eager to further the education of the White House culturally deprived, herewith a definition: Chutzpah is an old Ozark expression for the meshugas of taking a nation into war by lying, trying to discredit those who expose the lies and then, when one of the smearers is caught and convicted, sanctimoniously springing him for self-protection.
Gezundtheit, Mr. Press Secretary.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
When They Look Back at Libby
Future researchers digging through the legal and political rubble of US v. I. Lewis Libby may be puzzled to find:
“If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," the President said in 2004 about the outing of Valerie Plame. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.”
In 2007, he took care of the leaker by commuting his 30-month sentence before it started.
Libby, who was found guilty, did not serve one minute. A New York Times reporter was behind bars for 85 days.
The Vice President’s former chief of staff was fined $250,000. His admirers raised $5 million for his defense, none of which, they insisted, would be used to pay that obligation.
The day after the commutation, a New York Times editorial titled “Soft on Crime” said Mr. Bush “sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell.”
The same day on the facing page, columnist David Brooks wrote: “The farce is over. It has no significance. Nobody but Libby’s family will remember it in a few weeks time.”
Whatever those future researchers conclude, they may find it a curious setback for the rule of law, separation of powers, freedom of the press and, perhaps most of all, plain-spoken honesty in public discourse.
“If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," the President said in 2004 about the outing of Valerie Plame. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.”
In 2007, he took care of the leaker by commuting his 30-month sentence before it started.
Libby, who was found guilty, did not serve one minute. A New York Times reporter was behind bars for 85 days.
The Vice President’s former chief of staff was fined $250,000. His admirers raised $5 million for his defense, none of which, they insisted, would be used to pay that obligation.
The day after the commutation, a New York Times editorial titled “Soft on Crime” said Mr. Bush “sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell.”
The same day on the facing page, columnist David Brooks wrote: “The farce is over. It has no significance. Nobody but Libby’s family will remember it in a few weeks time.”
Whatever those future researchers conclude, they may find it a curious setback for the rule of law, separation of powers, freedom of the press and, perhaps most of all, plain-spoken honesty in public discourse.
Iffy Expert on White House Crime
After the Scooter Libby commutation, Keith Olbermann interviewed two people this evening--former Ambassador Joe Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame, the object of Libby’s lying and obstruction of justice, and John Dean, Nixon’s White House counsel in his new career as the Bush Administration’s harshest critic.
For someone who lived through and reported on the Watergate years, Dean’s resurrection is a little hard to take. It’s like listening to sermons from a whore. For those too young to remember, this from Wikipedia’s will serve as a catch-up:
“Dean pled guilty to obstruction of justice before Watergate trial judge John Sirica on November 30, 1973. He admitted supervising payments of ‘hush money’ to the Watergate burglars, notably E. Howard Hunt, and revealed the existence of Nixon's enemies list.
“On August 2, 1974, Sirica handed down a sentence of one to four years in a minimum-security prison. However, when Dean surrendered himself as scheduled on September 3, he was diverted to the custody of U.S. Marshals and kept instead at Fort Holabird (near Baltimore, Maryland) in a special ‘safe house’ holding facility primarily used for witnesses against the Mafia.
“He spent his days in the offices of the Watergate Special Prosecutor and testifying in the trial of Watergate conspirators Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson, which concluded on January 1, 1975. Dean's lawyer moved to have his sentence reduced, and on January 8, Sirica granted the motion, adjusting Dean's sentence to time served.”
Civilized human beings believe in redemption, but does that extend to making the fallen experts and moral arbiters? Dean was a willing White House accomplice to criminal activity until he saved his skin by helping expose the people he worked for and with.
That’s understandable, but more sensitive souls will pardon me for not wanting to hear his opinions on today’s public morality ad nauseam. Olbermann might think about finding instead some of the people who risked their careers opposing Nixon’s criminality while he still had power.
If Alberto Gonzales or any of his cohorts finally spill the beans on Rove and Bush out of fear of going to prison, that will be fine for American democracy. But will it mean having to listen to them as moral exemplars during some scandal decades from now?
For someone who lived through and reported on the Watergate years, Dean’s resurrection is a little hard to take. It’s like listening to sermons from a whore. For those too young to remember, this from Wikipedia’s will serve as a catch-up:
“Dean pled guilty to obstruction of justice before Watergate trial judge John Sirica on November 30, 1973. He admitted supervising payments of ‘hush money’ to the Watergate burglars, notably E. Howard Hunt, and revealed the existence of Nixon's enemies list.
“On August 2, 1974, Sirica handed down a sentence of one to four years in a minimum-security prison. However, when Dean surrendered himself as scheduled on September 3, he was diverted to the custody of U.S. Marshals and kept instead at Fort Holabird (near Baltimore, Maryland) in a special ‘safe house’ holding facility primarily used for witnesses against the Mafia.
“He spent his days in the offices of the Watergate Special Prosecutor and testifying in the trial of Watergate conspirators Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson, which concluded on January 1, 1975. Dean's lawyer moved to have his sentence reduced, and on January 8, Sirica granted the motion, adjusting Dean's sentence to time served.”
Civilized human beings believe in redemption, but does that extend to making the fallen experts and moral arbiters? Dean was a willing White House accomplice to criminal activity until he saved his skin by helping expose the people he worked for and with.
That’s understandable, but more sensitive souls will pardon me for not wanting to hear his opinions on today’s public morality ad nauseam. Olbermann might think about finding instead some of the people who risked their careers opposing Nixon’s criminality while he still had power.
If Alberto Gonzales or any of his cohorts finally spill the beans on Rove and Bush out of fear of going to prison, that will be fine for American democracy. But will it mean having to listen to them as moral exemplars during some scandal decades from now?
Monday, July 02, 2007
A Confessional Commutation
The President proved today that there is honor among thieves. His commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence is a confession of guilt on his own behalf and that of his Vice President.
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