Kristol: Can anyone respect Bush for not pardoning Libby?

There really are some Republicans who believe that the law is for other people and that, if they are ever found to have broken it, well it shouldn't apply to them anyway.

Listen to this childish diatribe from that chickenhawk warmonger Bill Kristol about why Bush is being somehow cowardly by refusing to pardon "Scooter" Libby.

Will Bush pardon Libby? Apparently not--even if it means a man who worked closely with him and sought tirelessly to do what was right for the country goes to prison. Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino, noting that the appeals process was underway, said, "Given that and in keeping with what we have said in the past, the president has not intervened so far in any other criminal matter and he is going to decline to do so now."

So much for loyalty, or decency, or courage. For President Bush, loyalty is apparently a one-way street; decency is something he's for as long as he doesn't have to take risks in its behalf; and courage--well, that's nowhere to be seen. Many of us used to respect President Bush. Can one respect him still?

So, Kristol not only thinks that Republicans who break the law should be instantly pardoned; indeed, he thinks that this is the loyal, decent and courageous thing for the President to do.

What part of this doesn't he get? "Scooter" Libby broke the law. He lied under oath. Of course Kristol argues that Libby, "Didn’t lie in any serious meaning of lying before a grand jury". As if there are somehow degrees of lying to grand jury's and Libby is somehow at the weak end of that scale.

Of course, before Fitzgerald made clear that Libby had lied to a grand jury, Bill Kristol was calling for anyone who lied to such a jury to be fired and prosecuted.

If individuals purposefully lied to a grand jury or engaged in a knowing conspiracy to cover up the truth, those persons deserve to be fired and prosecuted.

Of course in this same article he is arguing that Fitzgerald might have the courage to bring no prosecutions at all.

Now that he has - and for the very reason that Kristol cited as firing offence and a good reason for a person to be prosecuted - Kristol now thinks that Bush is engaging in treachery and cowardice by not instantly pardoning this criminal.

Of course when it was Bill Clinton who had lied under oath, Kristol was one of the many Republicans calling for his impeachment, (or, as conservatives used to call it, the "rule of law"), whereas now lying under oath is something that is subject to degrees and Libby is found by the loathsome Kristol not to have lied "in any serious meaning of lying before a grand jury".

There really is nothing to say. His hypocrisy speaks for itself, but it's the fact that he can wrap this blatant hypocrisy in moralistic language such as "loyalty, or decency, or courage" that simply makes me want to barf.

In another of his bizarre editorials at that rag he runs, The Weekly Standard, he ranted on about prosecutors "criminalising conservatives." When, of course, we should all know that the law doesn't apply to Conservatives.

These people used to call themselves "the party of responsibility". Yet, when it comes to accepting any, they scream that people are "criminalising" them if they are not instantly given a "get out of jail free" card if found guilty of any crime.

Kristol is simply beneath contempt. Why is this hypocritical nutbag - who has been profoundly wrong on everything he has said for the past three years - still allowed access to the airwaves? In any decent society he would be forced to hide away in shame, and yet he is regularly brought on to TV shows as "an expert". It's simply mindboggling.

Click title for Kristol's repulsive diatribe.