Deft doings
Given even the slightest chance, the Bush administration has shown an amazing ability over the past several years to choose the worst of all possibilities presented to it in any given circumstance.
However, with last evening's commutation of prison sentence for Scooter Libby, they appear finally to have gotten one right.
Libby's head was hung on a pike for public political enjoyment (and no, I neither have time nor feel like going into the details), and his case has not reached even its first appeal. The happy dance so far engaged in by the judicial class in Washington DC has served to do nothing but continue the political theater and public shaming of Libby. The courts' having ordered him to begin his jail term with his appeal in process, while not unheard of, is far outside the bounds of standard practice in these matters.
For anyone who might disagree with that characterization, I've got two words for you, words that in any rational comparative world would cause snickers and insistence that Libby receive full exoneration and the apologies of the government for its having hassled him: "Sandy Berger". And the fact that they both have little-boy first names is only a coincidence.
Back to my point - Bush had several choices which would have made a hash of this matter, including doing nothing (wrong, not because it might have upset "the base", but wrong because loyalty and fairness dictated action of some sort), and issuing a full pardon (wrong, because he was convicted, however potentially wrongly, and his appeals have not yet run their course).
Deft handling of the matter, via a focus on the one ragingly unfair portion of the story - the immediate incarceration, was as welcome to see as it was surprising. I've come to expect the Bush administration to regularly puke in its own lap, and this time, they didn't.
The fine stays in place, along with the probation, all pending completion of the appeals process. If those appeals are unsuccessful, for the record, I'd react badly to an end-of-term full pardon, just so we're clear on things. Based on what I've seen of the judicial process so far, however, I expect Libby to eventually clear his name in the courts. Allowing him to do so outside of the Graybar Hotel seems quite fair to me.
For the first time in quite a while, then, I'm in a position to compliment Bush for not fucking up something simple. Which is a blessing and a shame, now that I think about it.
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I have two words for you, too
I have two words for you, too: "Nigga, pleez." The only reason -- the ONLY reason -- Bush didn't pardon Libby is because this course allows Libby to still plead the 5th if this matter is investigated by the Congress. By making sure Libby never sees the inside of a cell, Bush has repurchased Libby's loyalty and ensured protection of the White House via the 5th.
Still, it's nice to see y'all sticking up for the right to lie to the FBI while they're in the process of investigating a crime. Hooray for the rule of law! (Isn't that one of those things you Republicans are supposedly big on? Rule of law? Is that non-operational now?)
Libby’s head was hung on a pike for public political enjoyment
This is a load of fucking horseshit and you're both old enough and smart enough to know it.
Don't tell me, let me guess:
Don't tell me, let me guess: You didn't get everything you wanted for Fitzmas?
My condolences.
So did he lie to
So did he lie to investigators or not?
Hmmmmm,
Hmmmmm,
Well, let's see now. The left's #1 butt boy Bill Clinton pardoned a shitload of folks who comitted actual.. wait for it... felonies, and hardly a peep is heard from anyone.
Bush commutes a sentence of one guy who got royally screwed by both the prosecutor and the press (the testimony was a classic he said/she said moment) and it's proof that the bushitlerhaliburtonrovian corporation is in control of the world. With the Freemasons. And the Trilateral Commission. And the Bilderburgers. And the Illuminatti. etc....
Jeebus Crispees.
Fitz KNEW who had leaked Plame's name to the press within 3 frikkin' days of starting his investigations.. It wasn't a crime. She wasn't covert. No crime was comitted. Fitz kept milking that cash cow for eveything it was worth for 3 YEARS!.
If anyone ought to go to jail, it's Fitz and all his lawyer enabler buddies. they cost this nation of taxpayers MILLIONS of dollars, and for what? Good lord, even the Soviets at least could stage manage a show trial and actually CONVICT someone.
All Fitz has is a podunk perjury conviction that will, almost assuredly, be overturned when it reaches the SJC.
Fitz ought to be tossed into the slammer, and he and everyone associated with his office forced to pay back the MILLIONS they raped from the taxpayers.
And then fed to the zombies. Or Michael Jackson. Or both.
Respects,
"So did he lie to
"So did he lie to investigators or not?"
I don't know. I don't think he knowingly mislead the FBI - he's obviously not stupid and they had his notebooks. At some point he got his story wrong and Fitzy sprung the trap.
He fucked up by not lawyering up. When Mr. Special Investigator and the FBI visit - hide in the bathroom until your lawyer shows up.
I think that what's so far
I think that what's so far undisputed is that he told the investigators things that didn't agree with statements made by others.
A jury has decided that this constituted lying. An appeals court, and possibly a subsequent jury, may beg to differ, for a variety of reasons.