CNN: Conservatives Will Be 'Angry' Over Commutation, GOP Double Standard re: Clinton

http://newsbusters.org/ ^ | July 2, 2007 | Brent Baker

[lowbridge]

CNN: Conservatives Will Be 'Angry' Over Commutation, GOP Double Standard re: Clinton

Posted by Brent Baker on July 2, 2007 - 21:44.

With “Angry Reaction” on screen, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux opened the 7pm EDT hour of The Situation Room by asking if on the Libby commutation: “Are conservatives as angry as Democrats?” Toward the end of the hour, Malveaux, filling in for Wolf Blitzer, cued up ex-Clinton operative Paul Begala: “President Clinton was impeached for lying before a grand jury. What do you think? What do you make of this? Does this smack of a double standard?” Malveaux announced at the top of the program: “Spared from prison, President Bush commutes the sentence of former White House aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby. Tonight, the breaking news and the reaction. Are conservatives as angry as Democrats?”

Analyst Bill Schneider soon echoed her theme: “There's going to be a lot of anger out there. I don't think it's going to be restricted simply to Democrats. Independents and some Republicans are going to be angry and it's going to feed into the anger at Washington that seems to be poisoning the mood of the country.” As for the idea “this would be popular with the base,” Schneider opined: “I'm dubious about that.” Referring to a CNN poll, Schneider argued that “when you have only 19 percent who would support a pardon...I'm not sure that I would say that this could have any positive repercussions for the President.” Malveaux, who seconds earlier cued up Begala with a liberal talking point about a Republican double standard, confronted Republican strategist John Feehery: “Does it cut two ways here? We've heard Bill Schneider saying he doesn't really think this is going to play out much in a partisan way. He believes that there are going to be a lot of Republicans who see it the same way as Democrats and say, you know, this is just preferential treatment.”

Transcripts of some segments from the 7pm EDT hour of the July 2 The Situation Room on CNN:

About 20 minutes into the hour:

BILL SCHNEIDER: There's going to be a lot of anger out there. I don't think it's going to be restricted simply to Democrats. Independents and some Republicans are going to be angry and it's going to feed into the anger at Washington that seems to be poisoning the mood of the country and informing everything happening in the campaign so far. Americans are very resentful over the fact that someone who was convicted of a serious crime for which many, many other people are in jail right now, had his sentence commuted and will not go to jail. That's the important thing. Will not go to jail, because he has friends in high places. That's exactly what enrages people about business in Washington.

MALVEAUX: So what's the political calculus here? The fact that he's got approval ratings that are under 30 percent now, below the freezing level that it doesn't make any difference at all what he does? He might as well just go for it and commute the sentence?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it may be a calculation that conservatives want this to happen. There's been a lot of pressure on the White House from conservatives in Washington. Some of the presidential candidates said they favor the pardon. And that, therefore, the President could solidify his support in his base, that this would be popular with the base. Maybe it will be. I'm dubious about that. I don't know. But when you have only 19 percent who would support a pardon, that's not a commutation, it's a pardon, but I'm not sure many people will see a big difference. The important thing is staying out of jail. I'm not sure that I would say that this could have any positive repercussions for the President.
Approximately 54 minutes into the hour:

MALVEAUX TO PAUL BEGALA (on phone): President Bush was impeached for lying before -- before -- I'm sorry, President Clinton was impeached for lying before a grand jury. What do you think? What do you make of this? Does this smack of a double standard?

BEGALA: “Well, of course it's a double standard. President Clinton was found not guilty by a Republican-controlled Senate. Not guilty. Mr. Libby was found guilty, in a case brought by a Republican prosecutor and heard before a Republican judge. Mr. Libby was found guilty. He was found guilty of four felonies. Now, the President has an untrammeled right to commute that sentence, well within his power to do so. But I think he's gonna pay an enormous price in terms of his credibility and his legacy. The notion that is going to take hold I think out there in the country is that there's a double standard that some of the other commentators referred to. That George Bush is only compassionate when it comes to conservatives.

MALVEAUX TO REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST JOHN FEEHERY (on phone): John, does it cut two ways here? We've heard Bill Schneider saying he doesn't really think this is going to play out much in a partisan way. He believes that there are going to be a lot of Republicans who see it the same way as Democrats and say, you know, this is just preferential treatment.

[Lancey Howard]

Double Standard re: Clinton

Apparently George Bush decided that Libby should spend exactly the same amount of time in jail for perjury as that scumbag Clinton.

[bill1952]

Didn't Libby lose his appeal, and this is why the President is commuting his sentence?

No. Libby lost an appeal to the presiding judge to delay sentencing while the case was being appealed.

A distinction lost in the deliberate way that the drive by media framed the fact.

[Cementjungle]

I’m not aware of a single conservative or Republican who’s angry over this

I'm angry that it wasn't a full pardon.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Angry?

WHAT TOOK SO LONG???

[dfwgator]

Apparently George Bush decided that Libby should spend exactly the same amount of time in jail for perjury as that scumbag Clinton.

And Sandy Berger.

[REDWOOD99]

C’mon! Angry? Or just disappointed and PO’d about some other issues?

[Cringing Negativism Network]

To tell the truth, this is the first time I’ve been happy with something Bush did, in at least a month.

Now about those two border guards, Sir.

[ken21]

she’s uninformed.

i’m pleased that the president for once stood up and made a decision.

[Petronski]

Begala’s such a whore.

[JerseyHighlander]

I doubt more than 5% of the country can name any of Clinton’s pardons.

Between Henry Cisneros and Susan McDougal pardons by Clinton, Bush’s grant of commutation is first off following a Clinton precedent if the talking heads want to play the gotcha game, but if you look a bit deeper, Clinton pardoned a woman who was a business partner of the Clintons in their private financial lives. Cisneros lied to the FBi and got away with a wrist slap ($10,000 fine).

So, the only people in the country who would be informed enough to make a sound judgement between the two presidents pardon list, are those who are either democrat wonk harpy shrills, RNC wonk bowtie guys, and random law professors and amateur political news addicts on the internet.

The DNC shrill harpies can’t lie when the information is a few seconds away in a google search. Even using CNN as a loudspeaker, it just doesn’t hold water.

[o_zarkman44]

What makes me angry is that Ted Kennedy walked away from a fatal MVI, didn’t report it till the next morning, and was never charged with anything substantial.

What makes me angry is that Diane Feinstein was on a Senate Committee that appropriated money for contracts that her husband profited immensly from, and nothing has happened.

I get very angry when there is a double standard when politicians break the law compared to average citizens.
Citizens get the ball and chain. Politicians get book deals and speaking engagements.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Libby barely registers on the scale of general malfeasance, but the MSM dinkwads would like to think we’re all uptight about it. Sorry, but neither liberal Democrats nor their hyperventilating mouthpieces are qualified to speak about standards, double or otherwise.

[VR-21]

"The RINOs will denounce the President to keep getting plaudits in the liberal media."

Let them. The more they reveal themselves for what they are, the easier it will be to get rid of them.

I don't want peoples anger at them to lose any intensity. They must never hold office again.

[PGalt]

Hooray President Bush!

[skr]

CNN is speaking for conservatives now? Sometimes they’re funnier than they are treasonous.

[Political Junkie Too]

ex-Clinton operative Paul Begala: “President Clinton was impeached for lying before a grand jury. What do you think? What do you make of this? Does this smack of a double standard?”

Let's see... One was a President, and the other was a hired Chief of Staff to the Vice-President.

Begala (and CNN by extension) is now trying to compare a President to a VP Chief of Staff? That just goes to show you how much the media wanted this to be about another President, because they're forced to substitute Libby into an equation that was designed for Bush.

Now, if they want a real comparison, they should look at Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich compared to Bushes commutation of Libby. What would Begala say about that?

-PJ

[GregoryFul]

One wonders where the “mainstream” news media gets this idea.

Really? They make it up to suit their agenda.

[TASMANIANRED]

Their lace panties are really in a twist.

[WOSG]

“President Clinton was impeached for lying before a grand jury. What do you think? What do you make of this? Does this smack of a double standard?”

Yes it does. It was a double standard for Clinton not to get two plus years of Jail Time.

[WOSG]

Analyst Bill Schneider soon echoed her theme: “There's going to be a lot of anger out there. I don't think it's going to be restricted simply to Democrats. Independents and some Republicans are going to be angry and it's going to feed into the anger at Washington that seems to be poisoning the mood of the country.”

I am the LEAST ANGRY I HAVE BEEN IN MONTHS!

First, the Surge is working - Iraqi civilian deaths down. Who knows, it might even work soon enough that even the Democrats in Congress wont be able to prevent it from succeeding.

Second, stock market is up, bank account is full and prosperity is rolling.

Third, and #1 - WE STOPPED the worst bill in 20 years from getting enacted. We saved America from the consequences of another amnesty destroying the immigration system and harming our country.

Fourth, a good man has been spared a very unfair prison sentence and the travesty of serving it before appeals are exhausted even though his crime was nothing more than recollecting differently from some journalists... well, I can imagine a lot of things *I* recollect differently from journalists.

Fifth, I see the Democrats behave incompetently and incoherently in Congress, and see their ratings fall. Deservedly.

Last but not least, our Supreme Court has been putting out some good decisions that are making the liberals cringe.

LIFE IS GOOD!