Tag: Scooter Libby

Pundits are talking to wrong Americans about Libby


Just so we’re clear on this: The pundits believe the American people support the Libby commutation. Isn’t that what I keep hearing the talking heads say?

I mean, this Gallup poll (graphic from Gallup) seems to indicate a general dissatisfaction with the president’s action, if not outright anger.

Exactly which Americans are they talking to? I know: Other pundits.

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Constitutional crisis

The U.S. Constitution is in crisis. The president has placed himself and his closest advisors above the law, raising partisanship to a new level and allowing the White House to function as a small-time mafia family in the process.

Read this and this and this and this. (Only a Washington insider would make the case that Michael Kinsley makes today, shifting the discussion back from perjury and cover-up to a culture of leaks, finding a way to equate Clinton’s sex life with the vengeful activity of an administration run amok and the president’s willingness to hold his cronies to a separate standard than the rest of America and the world.)

I think he needs to take Keith Olbermann’s advice and resign.

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If you can’t do the time,call the president

So a conviction and three appeals later and Scooter Libby is heading to jail.

Check that. Scooter Libby learns that there is no substitute for friends in high places — or, in his case, friends in the highest places.

President Bush said today that he had used his power of clemency to commute the 30-month sentence for I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, who was convicted of perjury in March and was due to begin serving his time within weeks.

The action, announced just hours after a federal appeals court denied Mr. Libby’s request to allow him to remain free while his case is on appeal, spares Mr. Libby his prison term, but it does not excuse him from stiff fines or probation.

In a statement issued early this evening announcing his decision, Mr. Bush said he had listened to both critics and defenders of Mr. Libby, who was convicted of four felony counts for lying during a C.I.A. leak investigation.

“I respect the jury’s verdict,” Mr. Bush said. “But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison.”

So, to recap. Lie to a grand jury and get a fine. Nice.

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A lie is still a lie

I am going to run, verbatim, an e-mail from a friend and my response, because I think they sum up both of our reactions to the Libby verdict and subsequent hand-wringing and spin. Bill e-mailed me Friday, but I was away for a few days (which is why I haven’t posted anything since Thursday). My response is from today.

Bill writes:

So when did I become a Law and Order Republican ??????

OK, so I know that I’m one of those few people that live in the ‘fact based world’, but where does Krauthammer, Novak, etc live ????? I mean, not even to try to make a bigger meaning out of the Libby trial, but to boil it down to its simplicities. During an FBI investigation, and testimony before a grand jury, and it appears that he lied, so he was charged with lying and obstruction of justice. There was a trial, and people deliberated for a long time, and they decided that he didn’t ‘mis-remember’ or forgot, he lied with a specific purpose. Now you have pundits and Washington-insider reporters (if you can call them that) trying to spin this into something that it’s not. I think Fitzgerald put it best in his closing in saying that Libby’s lying is important because it did not allow the criminal justice proceeding to proceed. Yes, Libby’s lying doesn’t directly go to the reason for the original point of the investigation, but that investigation was impaired directly because of his lying. The way these pundits carry on is that this is some big miscarriage of justice, but the only thing I heard from the jurors was that they felt frustrated that Rove or Cheney wasn’t being charged, which then sends us back to Libby lying (and of course the jail sentence or threat of doesn’t have the normal effect that is does, as you now have members of the media calling for a pardon).

My response:

Isn’t it interesting that the same people calling for Clinton’s head because he lied under oath over a sex act are now downplaying Libby’s lying under oath tied to an intelligence coverup? Forget the issue of degree (Clinton’s lie had nothing to do with war or the death of thousands of American soldiers). You can argue that he didn’t lie, that his memory was faulty — a stretch — but to argue that it is a miscarriage shows how completely distorted by partisan politics Washington’s institutional memory and code of ethics have become.

Here is a question: If you are Bush and Rove, do you pardon Libby now hoping that time will soften its impact? Or do you allow him to serve some jail time and pardon him after the 2008 election?

Anyone who thinks that Rove isn’t considering this knows nothing about Washington.

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