Cheney Blasts Bush.

As Time magazine publish this story about Cheney's battle to have Libby given a presidential pardon in the final days of the administration, Rachel Maddow goes over Cheney's extraordinary statement; which basically states that Bush was wrong not to pardon Libby.

As Rachel points out, Cheney has a history of continuing to fight battles which he has long ago lost, but this one was personal. "Scooter" Libby took a bullet for Dick Cheney. That's why Cheney saw the pardoning of him in these terms:

"We don't want to leave anyone on the battlefield," Cheney argued.

Cheney thinks that all is fair in love and war, which is why he wanted Plame outed in the first place. He can't seem to get his head around the fact that Bush doesn't see things in the way that he does.

The Libby pardon, aides reported, had become something of a crusade for Cheney, who seemed prepared to push his nine-year-old relationship with Bush to the breaking point — and perhaps past it — over the fate of his former aide.

Cheney doesn't appear to me to have any concept of legal and illegal. He sees only power and thinks that the president can do anything he wants and that, the fact that the president does it, instantly makes it legal.

He can't, even now, admit that Libby did anything illegal. Despite the fact that Libby was found guilty by a jury of his peers, Cheney insists that reality is what he says it is.

I can't think of an American Vice President who cared less about the truth than Dick Cheney did. Which is why he can come out with this hogwash regarding Libby.

Tags: Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, perjury, presidential pardon, Bush

Cheney "outraged" that Bush didn't pardon Libby.

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I talked yesterday about how Rove has taken to the airwaves to say that news of fights between Bush and Cheney over the pardoning of "Scooter" Libby is mostly tabloid gossip.

Well, now Chris Matthews takes up the subject and he has interesting theories as to why Cheney might be so desperate to see such a thing. He thinks Libby knows where all the bodies are buried and that this is why Cheney was banging the table in the way in which he was. There is also talk of Cheney trying to distance himself from Bush's legacy, which I regard as utterly fanciful, their legacies - whether they both want it or not - are irrevocably intertwined.

Tags: Bush, Cheney, "Scooter" Libby, Plamegate, Valerie Plame

Rove: "I think every day about what Libby has had to go through."

Karl Rove has taken to the airwaves today to reassure us that the story of "a contentious relationship" between the president and the vice president, over the fact that Bush declined to pardon "Scooter" Libby, is simply tabloid exaggeration.

He also reminds us that "Scooter" Libby is "a wonderful, wonderful person" and that Rove thinks every day "about what he's had to go through".

It's a further example of how the law applies so differently when dealing with ordinary Americans than it does when dealing with the country's political class.

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England’s rate is 151; Germany’s is 88; and Japan’s is 63.

The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

The GOP is normally keen to see criminals put behind bars, but it makes a sharp distinction when the person that a court has found guilty and wants to jail is one of their own. At that point all the rules change and one is asked to sympathize for what poor "Scooter" has "had to go through".

Forget the fact that "Scooter" Libby was found guilty of the exact same charge which the Republicans had insisted made Clinton unfit for office; when done by one of their own perjury became something slight and almost whimsical. Indeed, the very fact that he had been prosecuted was used as an example of how "partisan" and "political" the entire prosecution must have been:

The Plame investigation was urged by the Bush CIA and commenced by the Bush DOJ, Libby's conviction pursued by a Bush-appointed federal prosecutor, his jail sentence imposed by a Bush-appointed "tough-on-crime" federal judge, all pursuant to harsh and merciless criminal laws urged on by the "tough-on-crime/no-mercy" GOP. Lewis Libby was sent to prison by the system constructed and desired by the very Republican movement protesting his plight.

But our political discourse and media institutions are so broken and corrupt that Bush followers (and their media enablers) feel free to make the completely-backwards and fact-free claim that the Libby prosecution was driven by "partisan" and "political" motives -- as though it was a mirror image of the Clinton persecution driven by Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and a purely partisan Republican prosecutor -- because they know that there is no such thing as a claim too false to be passed on without real objection by our vapid, drooling press corps.

It is for this reason that Barack Obama is reticent to pursue Bush, Cheney and others for war crimes. Because the GOP - backed by large numbers of the American press corps - really do believe that they are, and should be, above the law.

That is why both the president and the vice president could both appear on national television and so casually admit to war crimes. They do not believe for a moment that the law should apply to themselves.

And that is what Rove is lamenting when he talks of what poor "Scooter" has been through. He thinks it a partisan injustice that Libby was ever even accused of a crime, never mind convicted. For the law, in Rove's mind, should not apply to people like himself.

Tags: Karl Rove, "Scooter" Libby, Bush, Cheney, war crimes

Pardon? Question that put rift in special partnership.

The Guardian are reporting that Bush and Cheney had a falling out before they left office over Bush's refusal to grant a pardon to "Scooter" Libby.

In an interview, Cheney admitted the two had a row before they left the White House for the last time, Bush to Texas and Cheney to his home state of Wyoming.

Bush, who reportedly seldom stood up to his powerful vice-president, ignored a plea by Cheney to grant a last-minute pardon to a former senior White House staffer. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who had been Cheney's chief of staff, was found guilty of abusing his power in a row over a CIA leak.

Cheney told the Weekly Standard, published this week: "Scooter Libby is one of the most capable and honourable men I've ever known. He's been an outstanding public servant throughout his career. He was the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice, and I strongly believe that he deserved a presidential pardon."

In words he would never have uttered in public while in office, he added: "Obviously, I disagree with President Bush."

It was a rare falling out. Cheney said that in eight years of partnership he had clashed with Bush only five times. As well as the pardon, the two disagreed about the sacking of the defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who had been a protege of Cheney. They also split over North Korea, the lifting of a ban on handguns in Washington and gay rights - Cheney's daughter is a lesbian.

"Scooter" Libby was never a victim. And there was certainly never any serious miscarriage of justice in his case.

He was found guilty of perjury, by a jury of his peers, the exact same crime that the Republicans attempted to impeach Bil Clinton for committing.

Because of "Scooter" Libby's lies, Patrick Fitzgerald found it impossible to reach a conclusion in the case of who outed Valerie Plame from her covert status as a CIA agent.

So Libby was no victim, he was a foot soldier in Cheney's war to stop the truth from ever being revealed regarding how far he was willing to go to silence dissent about the Iraq war and the lies which had been told to enable it. Indeed, that is the very language which some Libby supporters are employing:

Mr Bush's decision not to pardon Libby has angered many of his staunchest supporters defenders, who have used word like "disgusting" and dishonourable" about the Texan. One suggested it was like leaving a soldier on the battlefield.

So, for all Obama's talk during the election about the need to be bipartisan, he would do well to remember that a large part of the Republican party regard this as a war.

Cheney is furious, despite the fact that Libby never served a second in jail for his crime. Because Cheney believes that no crime was ever committed. After all, all is fair in love and war, and Cheney - and his ilk - see this as a war.

It would appear that even the puppet couldn't go along with his master's reading on this one, but that mindset is a real indication of the forces which Obama is up against.

These are not reasonable people, they are vicious ideologues who see themselves as engaged in a cultural war.

Click title for full article.

Tags: Bush, Cheney, Libby, Obama, Fitzgerald, pardon

Defense of Scott McClellan

I'm with The Young Turks and McClellan on this one. This incident proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that President Bush is a liar.

He stated publicly that he would punish the leaker when he, himself, had authorised the leak. He's a liar. There's simply no other way to describe what he did.

Tags: the young turks, scott mcclellan, new book, bush administration, cenk, uygur, cia, leak, valerie plame, traitor, treason

McClellan whacks Bush, White House

As the ship slowly sinks, the rats are leaving, and some of them are realising that there is money to be made from, at last, coming clean.

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan is leading the way with what has been described as "a surprisingly scathing memoir" in which:

McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”

The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

I doubt that many of us had expected McClellan to be as forthright as he appears to be being, nor can one predict what will be the legal ramifications of such honesty for the main participants.

Rove has always denied any role in this affair and the fact that McLellan is letting it be known that he was "at best misled" over this issue will surely open the door for further investigation by Fitzgerald. McLellan states:

“There is only one moment during the leak episode that I am reluctant to discuss,” he writes. “It was in 2005, during a time when attention was focusing on Rove and Libby, and it sticks vividly in my mind. … Following [a meeting in Chief of Staff Andy Card’s office], … Scooter Libby was walking to the entryway as he prepared to depart when Karl turned to get his attention. ‘You have time to visit?’ Karl asked. ‘Yeah,’ replied Libby.

“I have no idea what they discussed, but it seemed suspicious for these two, whom I had never noticed spending any one-on-one time together, to go behind closed doors and visit privately. … At least one of them, Rove, it was publicly known at the time, had at best misled me by not sharing relevant information, and credible rumors were spreading that the other, Libby, had done at least as much. …

“The confidential meeting also occurred at a moment when I was being battered by the press for publicly vouching for the two by claiming they were not involved in leaking Plame’s identity, when recently revealed information was now indicating otherwise. … I don’t know what they discussed, but what would any knowledgeable person reasonably and logically conclude was the topic? Like the whole truth of people’s involvement, we will likely never know with any degree of confidence.”

There's something ironic about the very people who dismissed any critics of the regime as people "with books to sell" now rushing towards every available publisher in a desperate desire to dish the dirt and portray themselves as one of the good guys in a corrupt administration.

But some of Scotty's revelations are truly disturbing. And they won't be dismissed as "book selling" as easily as Scotty managed to do when he was White House Press Secretary.

Amongst his many home truths McLellan also speaks of the "botched federal response" to Hurricane Katrina and says that Bush's infamous photo-op aboard Air Force One was all Karl Rove's doing.

He writes, for example, that after Hurricane Katrina, the White House “spent most of the first week in a state of denial,” and he blames Rove for suggesting the photo of the president comfortably observing the disaster during an Air Force One flyover. McClellan says he and counselor to the president Dan Bartlett had opposed the idea and thought it had been scrapped. But he writes that he later was told that “Karl was convinced we needed to do it — and the president agreed.”

Why is Rove spoken of as some sort of political genius when he has been behind so many disastrous decisions?

And McLellan takes no prisoners when it comes to the honesty of some within the Bush administration, even going so far as to name the names.

“I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood,” McClellan writes. “It would ultimately prove fatal to my ability to serve the president effectively. I didn’t learn that what I’d said was untrue until the media began to figure it out almost two years later. “Neither, I believe, did President Bush. He, too, had been deceived and therefore became unwittingly involved in deceiving me. But the top White House officials who knew the truth — including Rove, Libby and possibly Vice President Cheney — allowed me, even encouraged me, to repeat a lie.”

The Vice President was encouraging the Press Secretary to repeat lies. Who would believe it of such an honest man?

UPDATE:

Olbermann and Maddow discuss McLellan's new book.



UPDATE II:

The tossers over at Fox News are parroting the usual bullshit.



Click title for full article.

Tags: Scott McLellan, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Bush, Cheney, lies, liars, Valerie Plame

John Gibson: White House deserves medal for outing Plame

The lengths that some Bush supporters will go to in order to defend the indefensible appears to know no bounds.

Tags: John Gibson, White House, Plame, CIA, Leak, Foxnews

John Dean on McLellan's Allegations

Hat tip to Crooks and Liars.

Tags: McLellan, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby, Plamegate, Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson, Yellowcake, Niger

Olbermann On McClellan Revelations: Bush Was A Passively Involved “Liar In Chief”

Tonight on Countdown, Keith Olbermann talked to MSNBC’s David Shuster about revelations from former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s new book, that President Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove were directly involved in deceiving the American people about their roles in outing covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame.



Hat tip to Crooks and Liars.

Tags: Olbermann, McLellan, Bush, Libby, Rove, Cheney, Plamegate, Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson, Niger, Yellowcake

McClellan points finger at Bush, Rove

In the days when it was Scotty's job to defend the administration from the podium, he would have dismissed the very charges he is now making as the rantings of someone wanting to "sell a book".

However, we always treated such claims with a pinch of salt when Scott made them regarding others, so we can only hope that there is some serious investigation into the claims that McLellan is making regarding why he misled the press over the involvement of "Scooter" Libby and Karl Rove in the outing of Valerie Plame.

In a new book that Scott McLellan is publishing concerning his time as White House press secretary, he names names regarding who he thinks was behind the cover up.

“I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the most senior aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby,” McClellan wrote.

“There was one problem. It was not true.”

McClellan then absolves himself and makes an inflammatory — and potentially lucrative for his publisher — charge.

“I had unknowingly passed along false information,” McClellan wrote.

“And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

McClellan says he was in that position because he trusted the president: "The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

Politico has caught up with Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper to ask what they think of McLellan's revelations.

“You’re only as good as your sources,” Miller, who was a reporter at the New York Times when the imbroglio broke, said with a mischievous laugh.

Miller, now an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, spent 85 days in jail by not revealing her source. “Nothing surprises me about Washington during this administration anymore,” she said.

Cooper, who was a White House correspondent for TIME magazine and is now the Washington bureau chief of Portfolio magazine, said he “was always frustrated that Rove and Libby misled McClellan.”

“I’m glad McClellan is, too,” Cooper said.

Now, there's something funny about Miller defending herself by claiming that you are only as good as your sources, as if the concept of journalists checking the credibility of information spoon fed to them by an administration seeking war is one that had never occurred to her, but McLellan's position was different. He was the administration's paid spokesperson and it was his job to stand there and deliver whatever the administration told him was the truth.

The names he gives go directly to the heart of the Bush administration and, although not remotely surprising, are simply further confirmation of how startlingly little the truth means to the current White House inhabitants.

Click title for full article.

Tags: Scott McLellan, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby, Plamegate, valerie Plame, Joe Wilson, Niger, Yellowcake

Valerie Plame on 60 Minutes - The President is Not a Man of His Word

Part One:



Part Two:



Hat tip to Crooks and Liars.

Tags: Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson, Niger, 16 words, Iraq war, uranium

Hanretty and Republicans "paying the price" for wrongdoing.

This is breathtaking. The Hill’s Karen Hanretty argues, not only that "Scooter" Libby has been punished enough, but that he's been punished too much. He should get a full pardon and pay no price for what he did. She argues this immediately after arguing that Bush was right when he claimed Libby had paid a heavy price. Hypocrisy and U-turns on this scale are actually quite rare.



Digby best sums up the Republican mindset:

There is no such thing as ethics. And hell, even if they do something blatantly illegal, the president ought to pardon them. They admit it. They're proud of it.

Tags: Karen Hanretty, Hardball, Chris Matthews, Scooter Libby, Bush, pardon, punishment

Accountability on Planet Bush.

Gonzales has done nothing wrong and "Scooter" Libby paid the price for his crime. Welcome to Bush world, the planet where nothing is as it seems!

Tags: Bush, Gonzales, Libby, accountability

A Politically Motivated Case

And whilst it's edifying to see the general public refuse to accept Bush's commuting of Libby's sentence, it's frankly astonishing to listen to the way in which some Republicans continue to insist that Libby was somehow the victim of a "politically motivated" witch hunt.

Listen to Marty Peretz whining in The New Republic:

It was from the beginning a politically motivated case, as Dershowitz argues in this morning's Post, the appointment of the special prosecutor, the prosecutor's own obsessions, the case itself with the doubtful and understandably doubtful but diverse memories of many witnesses, including the defendant, the especially harsh sentence pronounced by the judge, the refusal of the appellate court to continue Libby on bail -all of these were politically motivated. And, thus, in and of themselves, unjust.

How do they get away with this bullshit? Are they literally now simply preaching to themselves?

How can they claim that this case was "politically motivated"? Fitzgerald was appointed by a Republican administration, Libby was found guilty before a judge that was appointed by a Republican administration and had his appeal heard before two judges who were also appointed by Republican administrations. His sentencing was well within the guidelines set forth by a Republican administration's Justice Department. So, how can any sentient human being rationally argue that this case was "politically motivated"? Are we now to believe that the Republicans are motivating against themselves?

And what are the "the prosecutor's own obsessions" that he alludes to but fails to specify? And why does he put such faith in the "understandably doubtful but diverse memories of many witnesses". Why can't he bring himself for a nanosecond to consider - as the jury did - that these are perhaps not "diverse memories" but big fat frigging lies?

The Republican party have simply detached themselves from reality, they no longer even feel the need to put forward reasoned arguments and are now, literally, simply talking to themselves.

This ship is sinking fast.

Click title for Peretz's hysterical whining.

Tags: Peretz, Libby, Plamegate, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, Iraq war, Niger, Uranium

The Slide Continues...

Bush's abysmal record of sliding down the polls is continuing and his recent decision to "commute" the sentence of "Scooter" Libby certainly has not helped matters. What I find most amusing is that Independents seem to be reacting more harshly towards this decision than even registered Democrats.

69% of voters disapprove of his decision to commute Libby's sentence with 76% of Democrats disapproving and a whopping 80% of Independents finding what Bush did to be simply beyond the pale.

On a complete pardon, which Bush has refused to rule out, only 9% of voters would approve of such a step with 84% of all voters firmly against such a step. 82% of Democrats feel this way against a whopping 97% of Independents.

A slight plurality of voters now favour the impeachment of Bush (46% for and 44% against) although more people appear to favour the impeachment of the worst man in the world, Dick Cheney, where - amongst all adults - 54% favour impeachment with 40% against such a move.

The figures are as nasty an indictment of Bush's failure in his job as one could hope to see. 67% of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling his role as President.

And what's astonishing about the figures is that there appears to be a split over whether or not the Iraq war can be one with Dems saying no and Repugs saying that victory is still possible.

85% of likely Democratic primary voters voting for Hillary Clinton, 71% of those voting for John Edwards, and 64% of those voting for Barack Obama say they do not believe the United States can win the war in Iraq.

86% of likely Republican primary voters voting for John McCain, 62% of those voting for Rudy Giuliani, and 68% of those voting for Mitt Romney say they believe the United States can win the war in Iraq.

I genuinely find it simply astonishing that there are still people out there who believe Iraq can be redeemed. That goes beyond optimism and puts one firmly in the camp of the delusional as far as I am concerned.

Likewise Bush's ridiculous claim that the United States "are fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here" appears to have been rejected by Democratic voters as the nonsense that it is, although Republicans appear to buy into this bullshit.

67% of likely Democratic primary voters voting for Hillary Clinton, 84% of those voting for John Edwards, and 71% of those voting for Barack Obama say they do not believe that the terrorists fighting in Iraq would travel to the United States to fight if the US withdrew all troops from Iraq.

71% of likely Republican primary voters voting for John McCain, 45% of those voting for Rudy Giuliani, and 53% of those voting for Mitt Romney say they believe that the terrorists fighting in Iraq would travel to the United States to fight if the US withdrew all troops from Iraq.

So it's an interesting poll, not only because it shows how Bush's recent decision to commute Libby's sentence has gone down like a cup of cold sick with the general public, but it also shows that Republicans in general believe things that are simply fantastical; that the war in Iraq can still be won and, if lost, that Iraqis are going to cross the Atlantic and wage war in the United States.

The man who convinced them of this staggers on - with a mere 27% of the public approving the job that he is doing.

I don't expect to see a worst President in my lifetime.

Click title for full poll.

Tags: Bush, polls, opinion polls, Iraq war, worst president ever, "Scooter" Libby, pardon, commute sentence

David Shuster on Libby White House spin

Tags: Shuster, Olbermann, Libby, Plamegate, Valeria Plame, Cheney, Bush

John Dean: Bush’s Commutation Conflicts With His Own DoJ Guidelines

Oh, what a can of worms Bush has opened...

Tags: Olbermann, John Dean, Scooter Libby, Plamegate, Valeria Plame, Joe Wilson

Olbermann: Bush, Cheney should resign

Olbermann on why the pardon in all but name is a betrayal.



Glenn Greenwald is, as always, spot on:

That Dick Cheney's top aide, one of the most well-connected neoconservatives on the planet, is protected from the consequences of his felonies ought to be anything but surprising. That is the country that we have. It is a result that is completely consistent with the "values" that define official Washington. No other outcome was possible.

The Plame investigation was urged by the Bush CIA and commenced by the Bush DOJ, Libby's conviction pursued by a Bush-appointed federal prosecutor, his jail sentence imposed by a Bush-appointed "tough-on-crime" federal judge, all pursuant to harsh and merciless criminal laws urged on by the "tough-on-crime/no-mercy" GOP. Lewis Libby was sent to prison by the system constructed and desired by the very Republican movement protesting his plight.

But our political discourse and media institutions are so broken and corrupt that Bush followers (and their media enablers) feel free to make the completely-backwards and fact-free claim that the Libby prosecution was driven by "partisan" and "political" motives -- as though it was a mirror image of the Clinton persecution driven by Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and a purely partisan Republican prosecutor -- because they know that there is no such thing as a claim too false to be passed on without real objection by our vapid, drooling press corps.

For the right-wing political movement that has spawned the Bush disasters of the last six years, the exoneration of Lewis Libby was not merely something they supported. It was much more than that. It was a matter of the greatest importance. That is because Libby is a True Believer, a loyal member of their cult. Seeing him in prison would be humiliating, would make them feel weak and defeated at the hands of the Enemy (defined as "anyone who opposes them"), which is the worst outcome there is.

The only "principle" they have is that their movement is Good, those who oppose it Evil, and loyal members of their movement -- and especially its Leaders -- must never have their power checked or limited in any way. One who serves at Dick Cheney's side cannot possibly be in prison. Literally, there is no crime their Leaders can commit which will render them unwilling to defend and justify it. The overriding priority is that they remain strong and powerful, immune from the constraints of the law.

Bush Spares Libby 30-Month Jail Term

Is there a sentient human being on the planet who can even be bothered feigning surprise? Faced with a choice between further alienating an American public who hold him in almost record contempt and annoying what's left of the Republican base that continue to support him, Bush chose to leave aside any pretence that he believes in law and order for the moneyed clique that surround him and he has given "Scooter" Libby a commuted sentence that is a pardon in all but name.

Of course, what's unusual about pardoning this particular crook is that pardons are normally reserved for people who have expressed some kind of remorse. Not only has Libby failed to show remorse but there have been a cackle of right wing loons screaming that no crimes have actually been committed. As if perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice are trifling matters when carried out by members of Bush's administration.

I have always thought that people who work in government and therefore have a say over the laws that govern the rest of us should actually be more vigilant than anyone about obeying those laws. The Bush administration apparently does not share that view.

The commutation brought immediate praise from conservatives, who hailed it as a courageous step to avert a miscarriage of justice, and condemnation from Democrats, who said it showed a lack of accountability and respect for the law.

The president portrayed his commutation of the sentence, which fell short of a pardon and still requires Mr. Libby to pay a $250,000 fine and be on probation for two years, as a carefully considered compromise.

“I respect the jury’s verdict,” Mr. Bush said in a statement. “But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive.”

A more honest statement from Bush would have been that he agrees with strong messages when it comes to law and order but only as that relates to poor people.

Certainly it confirms in my mind that Bush is now officially a lame duck President, as he obviously no longer cares what the public think of him.

The action drew a sharp response from Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the case, in which Mr. Libby was accused of lying to investigators looking into the leak of a C.I.A. operative’s identity. Mr. Fitzgerald criticized the president’s characterization of the sentence as “excessive.”

“In this case an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws,” Mr. Fitzgerald said in a statement. “It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals.”

Bush no longer pretends that all citizens "stand before the bar of justice as equals" and is no longer even pretending that he does.

Of course, nutters like William Kristol have long been campaigning for Libby to be pardoned if no better reason than it would "drive the Democrats crazy".

Such is the reasoning behind the right wing "logic".

As Joe Wilson now says, this administration is now corrupt from top to bottom.







UPDATE: Another thought. Under American justice as handled by this administration, Paris Hilton goes to jail and Scooter Libby walks free. Says a lot about perspective doesn't it?

Click title for full article.

Libby Pardon? The risks for Bush...

Tags: Rachel Maddow, Scooter Libby, pardon