If only Scooter had just stolen and destroyed Top Secret Classified documents from
the National Archives like Sandy Berger did, it wouldn't have been a problem. ;o)
Posted on 01/15/2009 7:10:03 AM PST by meandog
As the curtain closes on the presidency of George W. Bush, the one loose end dangling is the pardon of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. In 2007 Mr. Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice.
Let us be clear about the Bush legacy. After September 11, not a year into Mr. Bush's term, his became a war presidency. George Bush's place in history will turn on what becomes of Iraq and al Qaeda. If Iraq fails, history will mark down the Bush presidency. If by fits and starts Iraq grows into the Middle East's first large, functioning democratic republic, a more likely result, the Bush presidency will be one of the great building blocks of the new century's political order.
In his final press conference Monday, Mr. Bush described the disarray after the airliners slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field: "People were hauled in front of Congress and members of Congress were asking questions about, 'How come you didn't know this that or the other?'"
The Bush team righted itself and assembled a tough response to the attack: the assault on the terror strongholds of Afghanistan and the Patriot Act. Then, in astonishingly short order, the political unity of 9/11 dissolved. Mr. Bush and his team found themselves embattled by the opposition party, much of the Beltway press corps and a leaking national-security bureaucracy. The goal of the domestic opposition was to thwart the Bush antiterror policy, or take down the people shaping it.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Mighty big "IFs"
bookmark
“the one loose end dangling is the pardon of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby”
Bull. Ramos and Compean deserve it more.
Exactly.
Yeah, Scoot should get a pardon, but Ramos and Compean DESERVE a Medal of Freedom, not jail time.
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, dynachrome.
“Medal of Freedom”
and we know who just got one of those!
This commentary by Daniel Henninger in the WSJ is not about pardons, it is about crap that led to the attack and conviction of Libby. Libby should not have been convicted. Libby should be pardoned - and for the reasons cited by Henniger.
Sure, Ramos and Compean should be pardoned, but that is not what this commentary is discussing. We here on this forum should understand that.
I left a comment on the article at the site. The moderator there probably won’t approve it.
Implies there are no other loose ends. Sloppy writing or....
Mega dittos.
No one else could have done the job Bush did. No one.
Bush is plagued by the McCain pathology. I had a grandfather who reflected this same sickness. He was generous to a fault to strangers and miserly to his family. Bush rewards his political enemies but conflicts his allies. All in the name of compassionate conservatism.
They messed up, bigtime:
Shooting at the felon was not out of order, but they are in jail for LYING about it.
Lying under oath, or in your statements is punishable, often with jail time.
It’s a pity they did wrong.
That said, there is NOTHING barring President Bush from pardoning them and recommending re-instating them to their original jobs. Scooter should be released as well. He was guilty only of being in the wrong place when a partisan committee went utterly rogue.
José Alonso Compeán is a former United States Border Patrol Agent, convicted of shooting an unarmed, illegal alien drug smuggler on the United States–Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, on February 17, 2005 and “obstructing justice by willfully defacing the crime scene”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Compean
Regulations
General regulations regarding the submission, consideration and award of pardons are set down in Title 28 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Sections 1.1-1.10. The regulations suggest a five-year waiting period (after conviction or the end of incarceration) before a person becomes eligible to apply for a pardon,
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/pardons3.htm
After a long investigation, Justice Department prosecutors determined that Berger only removed classified copies of data stored on hard drives stored in the National Archives, and that no original material was destroyed.[15] Berger eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material on April 1, 2005. Berger was fined $50,000 [16], sentenced to serve two years of probation and 100 hours of community service, and stripped of his security clearance for 3 years.[17] Berger also relinquished his license to practice law. [18]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Berger
What about the margin notes! You know, those handwritten little "over-the-transom" messages from Tricky Billy that set the unoffical but more important-to-follow-not-for-public-consumption-policy?
Honestly,the misinformation some people try to pass off...
BTW:
Speaking of which, concerning Ramos & Campean:
(1) they didn't break laws, but adminstrative procedures, and there is some question as to even that.
(2) Sutton moved to suppress vital information about the veracity of his star witness, in a friendly court. This incl. lying to the judge. Why did he feel the need to do that?
(3) unarmed? Prove it! The "victim" managed to cross the border after he was hit, and presented himself several days later. How many days to dump a gun?
There's alot more, if you're really interested in the truth. Go and find it yourself: people always value what they've found themselves more than what's just handed to them.
You really need to find a more accurate source than wikipedia. Try going to the source documents, and your accuracy will improve. Of course, that might impede your purpose...
“Implies there are no other loose ends. Sloppy writing or....”
The Bush administration is one big loose end...
“Ramos and Compean deserve it more”
I second that!
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