Free Republic

With supporters running away from him -- on his immigration policy, on Iraq -- with his popularity plummeting, as Republican politicians seek safe harbor, with critics sniping, there are qualities to admire about President Bush. Almost alone, stubbornly, he stands with our allies, including Israel, refusing to back down from Islamic terrorists working American public opinion in Iraq. He continues to pressure Iran on its pursuit of an Islamic theocratic nuclear nightmare in the Middle East. He stands for life, opposed to the popular drumbeat from those who would use some human lives to benefit other, more powerful lives through...

Senators want Libby prosecutor to testify 14 minutes ago The Senate Judiciary Committee may seek testimony from controversial prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about the obstruction of justice case against vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, two senators said on Sunday. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican member of the committee, said he wanted to hear from Fitzgerald because, "I still haven't figured out what that case is all about." Libby, the one-time top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty in March of obstructing an investigation into who blew the cover of a CIA analyst whose husband...

<p>I have been a lurker here for quite sometime. I am also a (struggling) cartoonist and thought I would share my latest offering with you.</p>

Scooter Libby Roundup FACE THE FACTS: The reason Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence was SO LIBBY WOULDN'T TALK. Bush “guaranteed not only that Libby wouldn’t talk, but retaining Libby’s right to invoke the Fifth. This amounts to nothing less than obstruction of justice.” Now, the Bush administration is legally protected from having to answer questions. If Libby had been in prison, anyone could have gotten to him. Now, no one can get Libby to say a word about the real culprits, which are obviously Rove and Cheney/Bush. **First of all, it's vitally important to understand what Valerie Plame was actually...

In drama – and in real life as well - players and events thrown together in improbable circumstances cause surprising or unanticipated outcomes ("situational irony"). When the drama is played out in Washington, D.C., there is always a Greek chorus of hypocrites who loudly criticize the players for infractions of which they, too, are guilty.With this in mind, isn’t it ironic that:† During the course ofan investigation to determine who identified Valerie Plame as a CIA employee, Richard Armitage - who admitted being the leaker - has not been indicted or prosecuted?† Rather than shutting down the investigation after the...

I understand the angst of certain rule of law proponents upset by President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's conviction. But most of the people outraged by it have no credibility, since they were utterly indifferent to the Clintons' habitual mockery of the rule of law and prolific and shady abuse of the pardon power during their co-presidency. As the president clearly has the constitutional authority to pardon or commute sentences for almost any reason, the issue isn't one of authority, but propriety. As a rule of law conservative I don't take lightly such executive interventions in the judicial process, believing...

I guess someone thinks he still going to show up.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House spokesman Tony Snow fired back at former President Bill Clinton after Clinton charged that the Bush administration believes the law is a "minor obstacle" in the "Scooter" Libby case. "I don't know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it," Snow told reporters in an off-camera briefing Wednesday. Webster's New World dictionary defines chutzpah as "shameless audacity; imprudence; brass."

Des Moines, Iowa - Former President Bill Clinton says President Bush's decision to spare ex-White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from prison differed from his own administration's pardon controversy. "You've got to understand, this is consistent with their philosophy," Clinton said during an interview on Des Moines news-talk station WHO. Bush administration officials, he said, "believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle." "It's wrong to out that C.I.A. agent and wrong to try to cover it up," Mr. Clinton added. "And no one was ever fired...

Mother whose son is serving time sees inequality in priest's sentencing. Patricia Jones can't believe it. Although the Rev. Daniel McCormack pleaded guilty to molesting five Catholic school boys, a judge handed down a 5-year sentence -- essentially one year for every boy McCormack confessed to molesting. Her own son got six years when he pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl who allegedly was on the street selling sexual favors at 4 in the morning. "I am very bitter and very angry," Jones told me during a telephone interview on Tuesday. Five years ago, her son...

Justice: Those who criticize President Bush's decision to commute Scooter Libby's 30-month prison sentence should remember: The punishment should fit the crime. And in this case, there wasn't one. Yet, that hasn't stopped Bush's foes from going into high dudgeon about Bush letting Libby avoid jail. The New York Times editorialized that Bush, rather than showing basic decency, "sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell." Presidential candidate and media darling Barack Obama opined this demonstrated how the Bush White House has "consistently placed itself and its ideology above...

What does it take to get President Bush to pardon Scooter Libby? Michael Ramirez has the answer here.

No prison time for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Not a year, not a month, not a day. Unlike the unconnected, the unrich, the uncelebrated —who are shunted off to do their time unceremoniously — the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney has been spared the indignity of a prison cell. President Bush says he commuted Libby's sentence because he considered it "excessive." So, while the president "respects the jury's verdict," he clearly disrespects the values of U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who was first appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan. If 30 months in prison —...

Well, now we know what "compassionate conservatism" means. It means that if you're Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, and you're convicted of lying to FBI agents and a federal grand jury, you don't have to go to prison -- even when many others have for similar offenses.Lewis "Scooter" Libby was to be sent up the river, or so U.S. Attorney Peter Fitzgerald thought, after being found guilty of those lies in an investigation of a Bush administration leak by which Valerie Wilson had been revealed as a CIA operative. Her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a critic...

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 -...

WASHINGTON - The hypocrisy is unpardonable. President Bush's decision to commute the sentence of a convicted liar brought out the worst in both parties and politics. In keeping I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby out of jail, Bush defied his promise to hold wrongdoers accountable and undercut his 2000 campaign pledge to "restore honor and dignity" to the White House. And it might be a cynical first step toward issuing a full pardon at the conclusion of his term. Democrats responded as if they don't live in glass houses, decrying corruption, favoritism and a lack of justice.

Flashback: In 2001, Nets Not So Fast to Jump on Bill Clinton's Pardon of Marc Rich Posted by Brent Baker on July 3, 2007 - 18:00. Back in 2001, the broadcast network evening shows weren't quite so fast to jump on President Bill Clinton's Inauguration Day morning pardon of Marc Rich, a fugitive from justice over fraud and tax evasion, who was hiding overseas and whose ex-wife was a big Democratic contributor. ABC's World News got to it a day later, but it took the NBC Nightly News another day. The CBS Evening News didn't bother reporting it until the...

Panic Over Possible Pardon, ABC Compares Libby Case to Plight of Cocaine Dealer Posted by Brent Baker on July 3, 2007 - 20:28. Broadcast network anchors and reporters on Tuesday night seemed to be in a near panic over the possibility President Bush might yet pardon Lewis “Scooter” Libby, while ABC's Martha Raddatz illustrated special treatment for Libby by highlighting a man sentenced to 20 years for selling cocaine, whose commutation request Bush rejected, and Martha Stewart who served five months for violations similar to Libby's. With “Libby PARDON?” on screen, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams warned that Bush...

So Double-You turned Scooter loose. He decided that 30 months in the lock-up for lying to an FBI agent and a grand jury was too much. So he cut him loose. Scooter still has a criminal record, he still has to pay a quarter-million-dollar fine, he still has to kiss up to a probation officer for two years. But he doesn't have to go to jail. Let's think about this. First off, Hillary can just sit down and shut up. Nobody with the last name Clinton has any right condemning anyone else for being a liar. Seems like her old...

Ok fine send Libby to prison - - -How would that work out? let's see - how long will it take before someone there gets key information out of him, then resells it one of America's enemys? . . . Really this has nothing to do with "playing politics" and everything to do with Politics. I don't see favortism as the key for Bush's decision to commutate Libby. What I see Bush doing is keeping America Safe. Let's face it; Libby just plan and simply knows tooo dang much secret information.

Prospective Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson and a few others on the extreme fringe of the lawless right have complained that George Bush was insufficiently generous to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby when the president commuted the 30-month prison sentence of the convicted felon who had served as his counselor and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Not to worry. Bush says he may have more favors in the works for Libby, whose deep involvement in the plotting to discredit former Ambassador Joe Wilson by outing his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, as a CIA operative continues to make him a...

Former President Bill Clinton criticized President Bush on Tuesday for commuting the prison sentence of I. Lewis Libby Jr. and tried to draw a distinction from his own controversial pardons. In Iowa to promote the presidential candidacy of his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Mr. Clinton was asked by a radio host, David Yepsen, “You had some controversial pardons during your presidency; what’s your reaction to what President Bush did?” “Yeah, but I think the facts were different,” Mr. Clinton said. “I think there are guidelines for what happens when somebody is convicted. You’ve got to understand,...

We have urged President Bush to pardon Lewis "Scooter" Libby from the moment a jury found Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff guilty of perjury and obstruction in the CIA-leak case. Now the president has acted. He didn't go as far as we would have liked, choosing to commute Libby's prison term while leaving his conviction, fine, and probation intact. But his action ensures that Libby will not go to jail, and that's a good thing. There were a lot of reasons why presidential clemency was appropriate. The first is that the CIA-leak investigation was a fundamentally political...

KEOKUK, Iowa - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton drew a distinction between President Bush's decision to commute the sentence of White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - which she has harshly criticized - and her husband's 140 pardons in his closing hours in office. "I believe that presidential pardon authority is available to any president, and almost all presidents have exercised it," Clinton said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "This (the Libby decision) was clearly an effort to protect the White House. ... There isn't any doubt now, what we know is that Libby was...

"...the case for the pardons was reviewed and advocated not only by my former White House counsel Jack Quinn but also by three distinguished Republican attorneys: Leonard Garment, a former Nixon White House official; William Bradford Reynolds, a former high-ranking official in the Reagan Justice Department; and Lewis Libby, now Vice President Cheney's chief of staff..."

KEOKUK, Iowa - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton drew a distinction between President Bush's decision to commute the sentence of White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby — which she has harshly criticized — and her husband's 140 pardons in his closing hours in office. "I believe that presidential pardon authority is available to any president, and almost all president's have exercised it," Clinton said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "This (the Libby decision) was clearly an effort to protect the White House. ... There isn't any doubt now, what we know is that Libby was...

Bush Grants Libby Clemency President Bush wiped away former White House aide Scooter Libby's jail sentence in the CIA leak case, saying the sentence was excessive. Key Democrats were furious at the decision, with Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) saying, "I can't believe Libby isn't getting the chair, let alone hard time - he told a lie for God's sake." Harry Reid (D-Nev) said, "Bush is setting a dangerous precedent for springing dangerous criminals." When reminded that Bill Clinton pardoned 140 individuals including some charged with terrorism, sex crimes, money laundering, embezzlement, and theft, plus commuted 36 jail sentences, Reid replied,...

ABC Wonders: Is Libby ‘Above the Law?’; Glosses Over Clinton Pardon Posted by Scott Whitlock on July 3, 2007 - 11:25. On Tuesday’s "Good Morning America," the ABC program featured two segments on President Bush’s commutation of Dick Cheney aide Lewis Libby. Substitute co-host David Muir opened the program by wondering, "This morning, above the law?" and GMA glossed over Bill Clinton's infamous pardon of Marc Rich. Instead, various anchors found time to twice highlight Senator Dick Durbin’s comment that "even Paris Hilton had to go to jail." Although reporter David Kerley's segment did feature a quote from Republican strategist...

President Bush, a recent story in the Washington Post tells us, is obsessed with the question of how history will view him. He has done himself no favors on that count by commuting the prison term of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. In Bush's statement explaining his decision, he said he was sparing Libby from prison because the 30-month sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton was "excessive." In the president's view, the court-imposed fine of $250,000 and the damage to Libby's reputation are punishment enough for the crimes of perjury and obstruction of justice. If this were a...

IN COMMUTING the sentence of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, President Bush sent the message that perjury and obstruction of justice in the service of the president of the United States are not serious crimes. Never mind the president's words about our system of justice relying on "people telling the truth" -- and that those who don't "must be held accountable." His bottom-line action speaks louder than all the platitudes and caveats in the president's statement. Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison after being convicted by a jury for his part in trying to stymie an...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was sentenced Thursday to community service and probation and fined $50,000 for illegally removing highly classified documents from the National Archives and intentionally destroying some of them. Berger must perform 100 hours of community service and pay the fine as well as $6,905 for the administrative costs of his two-year probation, a district court judge ruled.>p> "I deeply regret the actions that I took at the National Archives two years ago, and I accept the judgment of the court," Berger said outside the courthouse after his sentencing.

The White House on Tuesday declined to rule out the possibility of an eventual pardon for former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. But spokesman Tony Snow said, for now, President Bush is satisfied with his decision to commute Libby's 2 1/2-year prison sentence. "He thought any jail time was excessive. He did not see fit to have Scooter Libby taken to jail," Snow said. Snow said that even with Bush's decision, Libby remains with a felony conviction on his record, two years' probation, a $250,000 fine and probable loss of his legal career. "This is hardly a slap...

Conspiracy theorists, listen up! On Monday’s “Rush Limbaugh Show,” the conservative talk show host implored President Bush to pardon Scooter Libby. “Everything in this case is just senseless,” Limbaugh said. “There was never any crime. We knew who made the original leak about what’s-her-name. It’s unbelievable.” Then Limbaugh rendered his verdict: “It’s time for this pardon. It just really is. ... I don’t see how it could lower his standing in the polls.” Mere hours later, Bush commutes Scooter Libby’s sentence. Was he tuned into Rush’s EIB Network up in Kennebunkport? You be the judge.

President Bush's commutation late yesterday afternoon of the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will at least spare his former aide from 2 1/2 years in prison. But by failing to issue a full pardon, Mr. Bush is evading responsibility for the role his Administration played in letting the Plame affair build into fiasco and, ultimately, this personal tragedy...

When President Gerald Ford pardoned the disgraced former President Richard Nixon in 1976, the shock waves created a political tsunami that swamped the Republican's hopes of remaining in the White House. But Lewis "Scooter" Libby is no Richard Nixon, and President Bush's move to commute the 2 1/2-year prison sentence of the former White House aide famed for his role in the CIA leak case could turn out to be a mere ripple by comparison. With the war in Iraq, immigration and health care reform topping the list of Americans' most pressing concerns, Bush's decision Monday -- more than seven...

Morning Edition, July 3, 2007 · President Bush's decision to commute I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence proves that "this administration is corrupt to the core," said Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the former diplomat whose wife was at the center of the CIA leak investigation that sparked the Libby case. In denouncing the Bush administration, Wilson told NPR, "I would only hope that Americans now realize, with this subversion of our system of justice and the rule of law in this country, just exactly how corrupt they are." After Wilson wrote skeptically about U.S. claims that Iraq was shopping for enriched...

I keep seeing this talking point phrase in multiple MSM stories about the Libby conviction; "Libby was convicted in March, the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair roiled the Reagan administration in the 1980s."(emphasis, mine) This is a misleading statement that makes the reader imagine that no high-ranking Presidential appointee, adviser, or member of the White House has been convicted of anything or sentenced to anything since Reagan's era. But, at least one past official's name should be placed above that of Libby's. Henry Cisneros was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, appointed to...

Justice: Late Monday came the welcome news that President Bush has commuted the 30-month prison sentence of former vice presidential aide Scooter Libby. It was the least he could do. We've suggested before that it would be a good idea to give Libby a full pardon. After all, he was found guilty only after what was clearly a politically motivated trial during which he was charged with covering up a non-crime. Libby's life and career have been exemplary. Yet, for misremembering some comments he made to journalists, he got 30 months in prison — a grave miscarriage of justice if...

The crimes were serious, the jurors unanimous, the sentencing judge plainly perturbed at the defendant's felonious behavior. And so, four weeks ago, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, got what he had coming: 30 months in a federal slammer.

President Bush's commutation of a pal's prison sentence counts as a most shocking act of disrespect for the U.S. justice system. It's the latest sign of the huge repairs to American concepts of the rule of law that await the next president.

I'm listening to the wimpy Cisco Cotto interview Jesse Jackson Jr who is calling for Bush's outster because of the Scooty Libby thing. Cisco is actually hammering and basically laughing at Jesse Jackson. JJ keeps saying that Plame was covert and that Wilson didn't lie.. which Cisco laughed at, basically saying that's not true. Cisco then called JJ on voting against Clinton's impeachment even though Clinton actually committed crimes. Cisco said JJ can't even connect Libby to Bush. Cisco asked JJ why there was no outrage when Clinton pardoned Mark Rich (JJ's answer was because Bush's mistake was making this...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence pleased but did not fully satisfy restive conservatives, while enraging his liberal critics. Libby himself can breathe a sigh of relief that he does not have to serve prison time, but hardly anybody else is all that happy.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is disputing President Bush's assertion that the 30-month prison sentence given to former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby was "excessive." That was 1 of the reasons the president cited in commuting the sentence hours after a federal appeals court ruled that Libby could not remain free while fighting the case. Fitzgerald said in a statement that Libby was sentenced under the same laws as other criminals. He also said "It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals."

Imagine you are running a business and you suspect something has gone drastically wrong. Let’s say it appears that some money is missing. Your reaction, of course, is to call in an investigator with sweeping powers. Let’s say that after two years, and millions of dollars spent on the investigation, the investigator comes to you with some preliminary conclusions. One of your staff – let’s call him Jones – has tried to disrupt the investigation. This is pretty serious, you agree. Jones needs to be disciplined. But your principal concern is with the original investigation. Where’s the money? “What money?”...

FReep This Poll! Here is the poll question in full form... Do you agree with President Bush's decision to commute former White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's prison term? Yes No Not sure Link over to the North County Times/The Californian homepage. Scroll down a bit and look for the poll on the right hand side. Vote your choice.

President Bush's commutation late yesterday afternoon of the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will at least spare his former aide from 2 1/2 years in prison. But by failing to issue a full pardon, Mr. Bush is evading responsibility for the role his Administration played in letting the Plame affair build into fiasco and, ultimately, this personal tragedy.

MSM Ignores Higher Placed Clinton Officials' Conviction to Tout Libby's Posted by Warner Todd Huston on July 2, 2007 - 23:30. I keep seeing this talking point phrase in multiple MSM stories about the Libby conviction; "Libby was convicted in March, the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair roiled the Reagan administration in the 1980s."(emphasis, mine) This is a misleading statement that makes the reader imagine that no high-ranking Presidential appointee or advisor has been convicted of anything since Reagan's era. But, at least one past official's name should be placed above that of Libby's....

"Mr. Libby was convicted of lying to federal agents investigating the leak of the name of a covert C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson. Mrs. Wilson’s husband, Joseph Wilson, was asked to investigate a central claim in Mr. Bush’s drive to war with Iraq — whether Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Africa. Mr. Wilson concluded that Iraq had not done that and had the temerity to share those conclusions with the American public. It seems clear from the record that Vice President Dick Cheney organized a campaign to discredit Mr. Wilson. And Mr. Libby, who was Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff,...

MIDI - I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN That's right, we pardoned FALN out in the rose garden Bill's coked out brother...Mel Reynolds and there were so many others When it comes to pardons, are you kidding me No one beats my husband and his Hillary You know what's funny? We got big money When Denise Rich had been worried for Marc She knew who could help and so she came to see me I said this would be easy He's a wanted man, they're looking for him I can fix it so your life is no longer...

Olbermann: For Commutation in 'Greatest Crime of Century' Bush and Cheney Must Resign Posted by Brad Wilmouth on July 2, 2007 - 21:48. On Monday's Countdown, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann opened his show railing against President Bush, contending that the President "lied us into a war" and "needlessly killed 3,584 of our family and friends and neighbors" as the Countdown host attacked the President for commuting the sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, referring to Libby's involvement in the "greatest crime of this young century." Olbermann later tagged Bush as "Worst Person of the World," and announced that he will call...