Nothing to see here. Just one scoundrel helping out another.
Bush Commutes Libby Prison Sentence
President Bush commuted the sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby on Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term that Bush said was excessive. Bush’s move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case.
That meant Libby was likely to have to report to prison soon and put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby’s allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
“I respect the jury’s verdict,” Bush said in a statement. “But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.”
Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, and Bush said his action still “leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby.”
Dumbya just appeared on the early morning news, defending his commutation of Scooter Pie’s jail time, and saying HE IS NOT RULING OUT A FULL PARDON for the convicted perjuror and obstructor of justice. Watch for when Scooter Pie’s appeals fail. FULL PARDON. At this point, Dumbya has nothing left to lose.
The guy is so predictable. Just think of the sleaziest, most unethical, self-serving thing that could be done in any given circumstance, and that’s just what e will do. Good Lord. What a stain on America.
121—Yes, he’s like a mustard stain on the constitution—-can’t get it out.
Actually, I am continuously surprised by BushCo. As negative as I constantly strive to be, BushCo always exceeds my worst estimation. As a lame duck, why is he pandering to his base?? Now, I’m a Dem/Lib but seems to me he is screwing the entire Republiconned side of politics with this outrageous conduct. And yet, the far right is pushing him to do more. The fact that there are such people is not surprising. The fact they have so much enfluence in GOUSA is surprising, shocking, sad.
It would be fun to read the history books 25-50-75 years from now. Who destroyed Regans legacy? Another Repug. Not much joy there.
#122 Yeah, it kind of makes you wonder. The radical right, who were so het up to tar, feather, and execute Bill Clinton for denying allegedly getting a blow job, now think that one of their own should get a full pardon for what’s tantamount to TREASON. Typical.
Sheesh. Lots of smoke, lots of heat, but no fire.
The timeline of events:
1. Joe Wilson secretly goes to Niger and investigates.
2. Joe Wilson comes back and writes a scathing, anti-Bush editorial in the NYT about his secret trip, basically calling Bush a liar.
3. Bush administration says, “Who sent that guy?”
4. Novak asks the same question and investigates.
5. According to Novak, his unidentified source inadvertently mentioned that Wilson’s wife was involved in the selection process to send him to Niger and that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA.
6. Novak confirms that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA.
7. Novak looked up Joe Wilson in “Who’s Who” and learned that his wife’s name was Valerie Plame.
8. Novak publishes his column.
9. Wilson goes nuts.
10. NYT goes nuts.
11. Dems go nuts.
12. Nuts go nuts.
13. 2½ year investigation into the “illegally leaking” of Plame name.
14. One (1) indictment. Not even about the leak.
15. Novak is released by prosecutor, free to talk.
16. Prosecutor had name of original source from the beginning didn’t indict.
17. Prosecutor never has specifically said that the leak actually broke the law.
18. During Libby indictment, only crime was perjury to a grand jury and lying to the FBI, nothing about the actual leak.
This isn’t about breaking the law. Anyone out there, if you REALLY think that a law was broken, then please explain why didn’t Robert Novak go to jail for outing Valerie Plame? Why didn’t Richard Armitage go to jail for when it was discovered that HE had let the so called “secret” out that Plame was a “covert” agent?
After 2½ years of investigating, the worst crime they find is perjury to the grand jury and the FBI. The press and the Democrats are still looking for the quid pro quo. Fitzgerald knows what he’s found. There isn’t any coverup. Richard Armitage admits that he slipped up and revealed Plame’s name to Novak. There wasn’t any backhanded attempt to punish Wilson for writing his (inaccurate) NYT’s piece. Case closed. You guys want a conspiracy, but this doesn’t quite make the grade. Politics pure and simple.
>>Case closed.
Well, it’s a good thing that we have a “president” who knows more about the allegedly nefarious goings-on and the letter and spirit of the law than his Justice Department, legal experts, Valerie Plame, and the whole rest of the country put together. That way he can right the wrongs that have been done to President Cheney’s and President Rove’s gofer. The only question is, if nothing wrong was done, why didn’t he give Scooter Pie a full pardon right out of the gate?
And regardless of what does or doesn’t happen to Scooter Pie, the entire nation knows beyond reasonable doubt that this whole debacle was just another evil plot hatched in the breeder colony of President Rove/Cheney. Scooter Pie was just collateral damage. Along with Valerie Plame, and the United States of America.
Mr Mustard, Martha Stewart didn’t go to jail for insider trading, it was for lying to the FBI.
If 20% of people who lie under oath go to jail, that’s a reason to put high profile cases in jail. Send Libby to jail, send Clinton to jail, etc. In Martha Stewart’s case, she wasn’t under oath, so really her prosecution sends the message: don’t talk to the FBI.
Bill Clinton was acquitted.
And even though Martha was sent to jail for lying (just like Scooter Pie almost [but not quite] went to jail for lying), the underlying, never-proven crime was insider trading. Scooter’s was treason. Who would you feel safer living next to; some diva who sells off some stock of the company owned by the guy she’s fucking, or somebody who puts national security at risk by lying about betrayal of his country?
The only question is, if nothing wrong was done, why didn’t he give Scooter Pie a full pardon right out of the gate?
Answer: Politics. How naive are you? You don’t think that the Democrats wouldn’t scream louder if Bush gave Libby pardon? At least by commuting Libby’s sentence he can buy time till his term expires. Then you can expect a pardon.
Bill Clinton was acquitted.
Not quite. Clinton was ordered to pay more than $90,000 for giving false testimony in the Paula Jones case.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/07/29/clinton.contempt/
And he was disbarred from practicing law:
http://famguardian.org/Subjects/LawAndGovt/News/ClintonDisbar-011001.htm
This was mostly a slap on the wrist for Bill who was pretty much a pathological liar. After all, the man did lie to his cabinet and then sent them out into the public to defend his reputation. But being President and they didn’t really want to throw the book at him over a blowjob. And personally he’s such a nice guy.
the entire nation knows beyond reasonable doubt that this whole debacle was just another evil plot hatched in the breeder colony of President Rove/Cheney
What “evil plot” are you referring to exactly? Iraq? There was a LOT of circumstantial evidence that Iraq was trying to build chemical weapons and possible nukes. The Clintons claimed Saddam was trying to build WMDs during their administration. Turns out they were wrong too.
The press and the hysterical left are going to spend the last 18 months of the Bush presidency whipping themselves into a feeding frenzy. I think history will show there wasn’t much meat sticking to the charges.
>>And he was disbarred from practicing law:
Uhhh, nice half-truth. He was barred from trying cases IN FRONT OF THE SUPREME COURT. I don’t recall him having tried any before.
>>Not quite. Clinton was ordered to pay more than $90,000
>>for giving false testimony in the Paula Jones case.
Uhhh, nice half truth. That was in response to a contempt-of-court citation issued by the judge. He was acquitted of the charges against him.
You left-bashers certainly have a way with the half truths, don’t you?
>>And he was disbarred from practicing law:
Uhhh, nice half-truth. He was barred from trying cases IN FRONT OF THE SUPREME COURT. I don’t recall him having tried any before.
Well it’s not a half truth. Yes he hadn’t tried a case in front of the Supreme Court but if you bothered to READ the article, that usually includes not being able to practice in the lower courts as well.
http://tinyurl.com/2oruwn
“The Supreme Court ordered former President Clinton disbarred from practicing law before the high court on Monday and gave him 40 days to contest the order.
The court did not explain its reasons, but Supreme Court disbarment often follows disbarment in lower courts.
In April, Clinton’s Arkansas law license was suspended for five years and he paid a $25,000 fine. The original disbarment lawsuit was brought by a committee of the Arkansas Supreme Court.”
>>Not quite. Clinton was ordered to pay more than $90,000
>>for giving false testimony in the Paula Jones case.
Uhhh, nice half truth. That was in response to a contempt-of-court citation issued by the judge. He was acquitted of the charges against him.
Well you do have a point there. Bill Clinton was acquitted of the original charges but he was found in contempt of court for lying. And he had to pay the fine for perjury. Isn’t that what Scooter Libby was being charged with? He didn’t actually get charged for leaking Plame’s name. He was charged with lying to the FBI and the Grand Jury. Out of a 2½ year investigation that is all Fitzgerald could come up with. Rather lame IMO.
You left-bashers certainly have a way with the half truths, don’t you?
As Clinton said in his sworn testimony:
“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the–if he–if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not–that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement….Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.”
As far as “having a way with the half truths”, Bill Clinton IS the winner hands down. Of course maybe YOU THINK differently because YOUR definition of “is” is different then mine.
It all depends on how finely you want to parse your statements. Do I think that the Bush Administration was “out to get Wilson” I don’t think so. You can certainly read what Novak said himself: http://tinyurl.com/32yv23
“Two days later, and after getting up to speed on Wilson’s claims, Novak was wrapping up a previously scheduled interview with Armitage when he asked why the CIA would send Wilson, a diplomat with no nuclear proliferation experience, to Niger. ” ‘Well,’ Armitage said, ‘you know his wife works at the CIA, and she suggested that he be sent to Niger.’ ‘His wife works for the CIA?’ I [Novak] asked. ‘Yeah, in counterproliferation,’ ” said Armitage. After mentioning her first name, “Valerie,” Novak says that Armitage even joked, “that’s real Evans and Novak, isn’t it,” a reference to the type of insider gossip Novak and his deceased former colleague Rowland Evans used to traffic in. Writes Novak: “I interpreted that as meaning Armitage expected to see the item published in my column.” He added: “I am sure it was not a planned leak but came out as an offhand observation.”"
As far as Ambassador Wilson’s assertion that the Bush Administration was lying, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded:
“Conclusion: Rather than speaking publicly about his actual experiences during his inquiry of the Niger issue, the former ambassador seems to have included information he learned from press accounts and from his beliefs about how the Intelligence Community would have or should have handled the information he provided. ”
http://tinyurl.com/27ka3w
I don’t deny that things have been mishandled. But I certainly don’t think that was has happened rises to a conspiracy to coordinate attempts to lie about Iraq, or a conspiracy to go after Amb. Wilson and his wife. If so, why would Novak play along? He had nothing to gain and certainly he had a lot to lose with fines and possible jail sentence. And as far as Scooter goes. I think he did lie. Should he have gone to jail for it. I don’t think so. Should he pay the fine? I don’t have a problem with that. Should he be pardoned? I haven’t decided that yet. It certainly wouldn’t offend me if Bush ended up granting him a pardon. It’s not like he’s pardoning a Billionaire Tax cheat like Marc Rich or ex-partner and fraudelent land dealer Susan McDougal. She was so crooked she had to wait till the end of his Administration to get her pardon.