Getting Off "Scoot" Free

It's official. After the Judge ruled that Libby could not wait until his appeals had been exhausted before reporting to jail, President Bush commuted his sentence. Translation: No jail time for Scooter.

President Bush commuted the sentence of former White House aide I.Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prisonterm that Bush said was excessive.

There you have it ladies and gentlemen. I think most people saw this coming, although it came a bit sooner than expected. Since Bush did leave the two years of probation and $250,000 intact for Libby, it's not viewed as an absolute pardon, which is probably intentional since Title  28 of the U.S. code of Federal Regulations states:   

No petition for pardon should be filed until the expiration of a waiting period of at least five years after the date of the release of the petitioner from confinement or, in case no prison sentence was imposed, until the expiration of a period of at least five years after the date of the conviction of the petitioner. Generally, no petition should be submitted by a person who is on probation, parole, or supervised release.

Congress has one foot out the door for the July 4th recess. Let's see if Harry Reid strikes back after his statement following the conviction was ignored. Note to all of you readers out there; run for President and give all of your old friends great jobs where they can do whatever they want. If one of them gets caught, simply pardon them commute their sentence! As a send-off here's the dictionary.com definition of cronyism.

Comments

[Chief Editor: Todd]

This is absolutely outrageous! Good post, Justin. Libby was found guilty by a jury in a court of law. The judge handed down the maximum sentence. What is excessive about that? It's how our judicial system works!

This is the most corrupt Administration in US history. I was just 10 credits short of majoring in US History. I have studied a lot of corrupt presidents since the reign of Andrew Jackson. But even Nixon was Cinderella compared to these people in the Bush Administration.

Also, it shows that Cheney runs the show. Scooter was Cheney's guy. Bush does not know how to say 'no' to Dick.

[Justin Koenig]

Thanks Todd. I just don't know what to think anymore about these guys. At a 26% approval rating, you'd think they'd at least try to save some face and build up some confidence in their abilities; but both of them have said they are done with politics once this term is over. I'm pretty sure that once the Democrats take on a couple of more seats in the House and Senate, not to mention the White House next year, the GOP will be done with them as well!

[Erik R]

Angry? Google Clinton Pardons Coke dealers, Bank robbers, tax evasion, bribing a federal judge. the list just goes on and on. Over 140 in January of 2001. That's just in one month. Dig deeper. It kind of puts things in perspective. Now that's REAL corruption.

[john j]

Why is everyone so angry? This is the result of the slacker democracy upon us. Cheney and Bush know the public will sit around fuming over this, but they'll still just be sitting around. The power of the internet, of information is it's application. Reading a thousand blogs isn't worth as much as motivating five people who up until now have not taken an active role in the political process.

[C.MacLean]

People, people. You're just not thinking 4th dimensionally.

This is not about Libby's prison sentence being excessive (it was). This is not about Bush showing utter disdain for the law or the separation of powers (he does). And this isn't even about Bush kissing Republican party a** (he is).

This is about PROTECTING DICK CHENEY.

As long as the focus is on Libby, and to a lesser extent, on Bush, it keeps the focus OFF Cheney.

What does it tell you when the president is working this hard to protect the vice president? (and FYI, Cheney learned the secrets of real VP power from none other than Georgie's daddy, Bush the Elder, who was Nixon's CIA director and Reagan's VP. Cheney just didn't learn the stealth lesson well enough.)

People - it is not Rove, Ashcroft, or Rumsfeld:

it is Cheney, Cheney, Cheney.

If we're going to impeach someone, let's make sure we get the right guy.

Soon.