Posted on 07/03/2007 9:32:47 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
CHICAGO President George W. Bush commuted the 2 1/2 year sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former White House aide convicted in a CIA leak scandal.
As CBS 2’s Katie McCall reports, there was negative reaction in Illinois to the announcement Monday.
”Since the president has intervened in this process, it is now the Congress’ obligation and responsibility to intervene in the executive process and begin an inquiry into these very serious crimes against the constitution of the United States,” said Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Chicago).
Jackson says this time the president went too far. After word that Bush commuted Libby’s sentence Jackson plans to call on House Democrats to start impeachment proceedings.
“I certainly hope Nancy Pelosi will withdraw her initial remarks that impeachment is completely off the table,” Jackson said.
Libby was convicting of lying under oath to cover up the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame.
"I respect the jury's verdict,” Bush said in a statement about his rationale for lightening Libby’s load. “But I have concluded that the sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive."
Jackson's weren't the only angry words on the matter.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin evoked another famous convict, saying, “Even Paris Hilton had to go to jail. No one in this administration should be above the law."
There were detractors in the president's own party, including north suburban Congressman Mark Kirk (R-Northbrook), who expressed his disappointment.
“He was indicted by a grand jury and convicted beyond the shadow of a doubt by one of the best prosecutors in America, Patrick Fitzgerald, and didn’t have a single member of a 12-member jury stand up with him,” Kirk said. “At that point, if you’ve done the crime, you should do the time.”
Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted Libby, said all citizens should stand before what he called the bar of justice as equals.
Libby still has to pay a $250,000 fine and will be on probation for two years. The president says that is still a harsh punishment.
CBS 2's Katie McCall contributed to this report.
Where been the buses??!! Where them be at??!! (crying)
By "Crime Against the Constitution," Jackass-son apparently doesn't mean, you know, something actually counter to what the Constitution actually says. His meaning is much more nuanced (i.e., moronic) than that...
jesse who????
Jesse... don’t you have more important things to concentrate on... such as helping your thug father shake-down big multinational corporations (to stoke Rainbow PUSH’s bocketbook)?
BTW, 'congressman', what's up wit diss...
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s Airport EarmarkThen again Jackass, yeah let's DO have some Congressional Investigations. We'll start with you, then go to Daddy's books.
Friday, June 29, 2007 11:07 a.m. EDTDemocratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has put in an earmark request for the Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission. The trouble is, the airport doesn’t exist – and the commission is run by one of Jackson’s congressional staffers.
~~snip~~ Jackson’s earmark would take $231,000 from U.S. taxpayers for "Minority and Small Business Development and Procurement Opportunities."
The money request comes even though in 2006 Jackson had vowed on his Web site: "I won’t pursue federal funds for the Abraham Lincoln National Airport."
The earmark came to light in a report for the Financial Appropriations Bill. ... "Thankfully, Congressman John Campbell, R-Calif., chairman of the RSC Budget and Spending Taskforce, will offer an amendment that will protect taxpayers by prohibiting their dollars from being used for this extremely questionable earmark.”
I guess Jackson forgot about Cisneros (corrupt HUD director), Susan McDougal, ROGER CLINTON (coke dealing brother), etc.
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/20/clinton.pardon/index.html
That said, the Patty Hearst pardon was the worst. Talk about a pander to the MSM for payoff for Hillary.
I’d be interested in hearing exactly what “crimes against the Constitution” that President Bush is supposed to have committed, mini-Jessie.
It seems to me that President Bush’s commutation, or even a full pardon are specifically sited as one of the presidential powers within the Constitution.
Of course, maybe he thinks that because it’s not specified in a penumbra... And of course, liberals believe that if something is actually in writing within the Constitution, it’s to be ignored... Besides, the Constitution is a “Living Document” doncha-know.... So it only means what they want it to mean... Which means that it’s not worth using as toilette paper, which is how liberals treat it.
Mark
In March 1995, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno secured the appointment of an Independent Counsel, David Barrett to investigate allegations that Cisneros had lied to FBI investigators during background checks prior to being named Secretary of HUD. He had been asked about payments that he had made to former mistress Linda Medlar, also known as Linda Jones. The affair had been ‘public knowledge’ for a number of years - during the 1992 presidential campaign, U.S. Treasurer Catalina Vasquez Villalpando publicly referred to Cisneros and candidate Clinton as “two skirt-chasers” - but Cisneros lied about the amount of money he had paid to Medlar. The investigation continued for three and a half years.
In December, 1997, Cisneros was indicted on 18 counts of conspiracy, giving false statements and obstruction of Justice. Medlar used some of the Cisneros hush money to purchase a house and entered into a bank fraud scheme with her sister and brother-in-law to conceal the source of the money. In January, 1998, Medlar pleaded guilty to 28 charges of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and obstruction of justice.
In September, 1999, Cisneros negotiated a plea agreement, under which he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of lying to the FBI, and was fined $10,000. He did not receive jail-time or probation. He was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in January 2001 ( See: List of people pardoned by Bill Clinton). The independent counsel investigation continued after the pardon focusing on alleged obstruction of justice. In May 2005, Senator Dorgan (D-ND) proposed ending funding for the investigation; negotiators refused to include the provision in a bill funding military operations in Afghanistan. The funding at that point for the investigation totaled $21 million.
According to a New York Daily News report on October 3, 2005, “lawyers are fighting to suppress a potentially embarrassing final report from the probe that found Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros lied to the FBI about paying $250,000 in hush money to his ex-mistress. ... Lawyers at the Washington firm Williams and Connolly who work for Cisneros and both Clintons have argued to judges overseeing the case that allegations of illegal activity, for which no charges were filed, should be snipped before the report is made public.” [2].
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Do people like this and people who complain about the six Attorney’s general who were fired,have any idea of what the law allows?
How can you impeach someone for using powers granted them by the Constitution.
These people only show their extreme ignorance by coming up with crap like this.
Hey Dick:You friggin traitorous sock sucker, how did you feel when Senator Byrd admitted that Bill Clinton was guilty of perjury, but he wouldnt vote for impeachment.
You hypocrit Sumbeach. Lying sack of doo.
The whole democrat party are just so much hypocrit garbage.
Junior is obviously as mentally deranged as his daddy.
I take the offspring of Jesse Sr about 1/4 as seriously as I take Jesse Sr, and that aint a lot.
The real downside is that Jackson Jr. will probably be in Congress for the next forty years. An excellent argument for term limits.
HAHAHAHA! What was all that funny stuff you Democrats were saying last week about the Bush Presidency being over?
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