St. Libby
I need to say something about President Bush's commuting of Irving Libby's sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice
Bush spares Libby from prison sentence - The Boston Globe. Even if it adds little or nothing to the discussion. For my own piece of mind. Now this occurred after the sentencing which set 30 months for the sentence and after an appeals court declined to let Mr. Libby remain free while he prodded an appeals process forward. Both of which were in keeping with proper jurisprudence and full due process. Niether clemency nor leniency have ever been hallmarks of George W. Bush as others have pointed out
Libby's commutation is at odds with Bush's sentencing policy. - By Harlan J. Protass - Slate Magazine. Nor did he allow any one to question him
A Decision Made Largely Alone - washingtonpost.com. Like a pop music performer caught in a "cult-status" career death spiral President Bush is playing these days only to the right hand box seats. The right wing - particular and certain segments of the right wing - pushed hard for a pardon of Libby now and not later and they were not about to be denied by President Bush
Bush Does Not Rule Out a Libby Pardon - New York Times. They undoubted counted Vice President Cheney among their number. What they want exists within the narrow confines of their own self-interest and not the nations. The words fairness and unfairness, just and unjust, Law and Lawlessness have been thrown into the air. Some point out that commuting sentences, pardoning felons are among the Presidents assigned powers and therefore unremarkable
Why Bush was right to spare Libby. - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine. This does not mean they are beyond remarking on when used, questioned, examined for hypocrisy. The problem, before you can decide on or assign categorys among any of the above, before one can make make claims that this is just politics and therefore it is righteous to protect the troops (Libby). One must confront what the root of this situation was: the war in Iraq. Which rests on a foundation of illegitimate and deceitful justifications. It is an unjust war. It doesn't serve us to look past that to what arrangements can be made for Iraq now.
The vendetta against Joe Wilson, his wife and what they represented is what occupied Libby. A threat to the monotone drumbeat of fearmongering and war, This is what motivated him in the summer of 2003 and motivated him in 2006 to obstruct the grand jurys investigation and obscure the White House's role. While it is true Libby worked for others as he did this. He desired to work for them, choose to work them and choose to create and implement their schemes. For his demonstrable thwarting of the investigation he was indicted and convicted of perjury. President Bush did not find error in this. He found fault in the idea of imprisonment. Falling back on the discreditable conceit that for white boys - shame is punishment enough. Beyond this is the lurking shade of quid pro quo arrangements
Dan Froomkin - Obstruction of Justice, Continued - washingtonpost.com. The notion that if he did his part and took the fall, a pardon would follow. Complicating and intensifying the questionable nature of this is that further testimony by Mr. Libby might embarrass or implicate people close to the President even the President
Bush and Cheney walk, too | Salon.com (this piece written by Sidney Blumenthal funtions as a decent gloss on the overall arc of this storyline). I feel that there is on this a trace of begging the question: impeachment. Attempting to be antagonistic enough that opposition is either provoked to, or find their choices limited to, a constitutional showdown, such as impeachment proceedings. Which likely would prove to be an overreach which would revive this administration in its final months. It may be better to constrain rather than challenge. To let the legacy of this administration be its lawlessness. Their consistent waving aside legal consequence, to position their faction above law. It is disgraceful. It is dishonorable. It is a disrespect for legitimacy in the face of obtainable power. Fear and intimidation is what they leave this nation. Those who come after Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush will look at their model and seize upon it as the Caesers took the Cato's Rome with a ruthlessness that can not now be imagined.
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