Posted on 07/05/2007 6:54:43 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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 within federal sentencing guidelines — is "excessive," what is reasonable or prudent about no time to serve? How about a year? Six months? Thirty days? Wasn't it conservatives who came up with the line, "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime?" Isn't it the law-and-order crowd that's been chanting "no amnesty" for illegal immigrants? So why does Libby deserve amnesty?
By denying Libby a pardon, Bush claimed, he "leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby." Spare me. His defenders have probably already raised his $250,000 fine. Even if he loses his license to practice law, he has supporters who'll find him a lush sinecure. There's probably an office at Halliburton already being redecorated for him.
Libby was convicted on four counts related to his lying to federal investigators looking into a breach of national security — the disclosure of the identity of a covert operative for the Central Intelligence Agency. If such a thing had happened during the Clinton presidency, there would have been a procession of Democrats hustled off to prison as a thunderous chorus of hardliners demanded justice. Indeed, outing an American spy would have justified the venom and hysteria toward a sitting president that marked the Clinton years.
While the right-wing echo chamber has insisted from the start that Valerie Plame Wilson was not a secret agent, she was — an inconvenient fact confirmed in a CIA memo that surfaced during the sentencing phase of Libby's prosecution.
"At the time of the initial unauthorized disclosure in the media of Ms. Wilson's employment relationship with the CIA on 14 July 2003, Ms. Wilson was a covert CIA employee for whom the CIA was taking affirmative measures to conceal her intelligence relationship to the United States," the document stated. In other words, a spy.
The conservative commentariat also made much of the fact that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald never charged anyone with the central crime of disclosure (if any crime was committed, a fact they were not willing to concede). But that's the point, isn't it? If Libby had not committed perjury and obstructed justice, perhaps others would have been charged. Perhaps, Darth Cheney would be in the dock right now.
It's true, though, that Libby's lies cannot be counted as the most outrageous acts of mendacity from the Bush White House over the last several years. This administration dissembles, distorts and fabricates with ease — rarely troubled when it is caught in its own contradictions. Wilson's outing grew from the biggest lies of all: those used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
But even Cheney's machine of mendacity and manipulation couldn't cover up the facts indefinitely. The rich tapestry of fabrications about Iraq — liters of anthrax, tons of chemical agents, unmanned drones, mushroom clouds — was blown apart by Shiite militias and Sunni suicide bombers, revealing a misguided and mismanaged invasion. The American public has already made its judgment: 55 percent believe the administration intentionally misled us to justify its war.
And we have every reason to suspect something else: The Bush White House thinks it is above the law. When the president told us that he wanted to export democracy, he didn't say he wanted to export all of it. I'd prefer that he leave some of it here. In such a country, Scooter Libby would stand before the same bar as the powerless, and suffer the same punishment.
Wasn’t it this creep that assaulted the DC police officer. I’m sure a regular citizen would have been given the same treatment as Ms McKinney.
And most people would have gone to jail for punching a cop.
***If there were honest judges, Libby would be exonherated.***
I swear I didn’t put that “h” in there. It was Libby. He deserves to be punished. /s
And, it is at THIS point that you know the author has NO ability to approach this subject objectively...
“There’s probably an office at Halliburton already being redecorated for him.”
Once he says that, he identifies himself as an acute sufferer of BDS. Poor guy. Maybe we do need Socialized Medicine just to cure all these moonbats of their BDS... ;-)
You and I are both on the same page, but its the wrong page. This is Cynthia Tucker, not McKinney.
If Al Gore III, was lowly he would be doing time too.
Opps, I need to drink more coffee I guess. Thanks for the correction.
And if RAT politicians were honest, Slick Willie would have been removed from office and done time! But then we’d have been saddled with Algore...(shudder).
Two more: Henry Cisneros
If bent willie. our ex president, bill klintoon were lowly he’d be doing time along with ms. klintoon, al bores son, for his forth arrest, and most of the elected officals in the sewer called washington.
so I’ve heard, but I find it inneresting that the party most clamoring for amnesty to alian murderers, drunk drivers, rapists, etc., is the one whining about Scooter Libby’s avoidance of SOME of the penalties for being the scapegoat.
inneresting.
And if he were a U.S. Senator, he’d be Patrick Leahy.
“If Libby were lowly, he’d be doing time”
Very true, unless of course he were a Democrat.
If Libby were “lowly”, he’d never have been hammered for a crime that never occurred.
TO the contrary, if he were not a political figure, the Judge would surely have followed the Depat of Probation’s recommendation that he be sentenced to probation only.
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