I don’t think anyone’s ever used this photo to accompany a blog post before!
Last night, I went for a walk and composed an entire post in my head in which I used the Scooter Libby commutation as an excuse to release a righteous fire of condemnation on George W. Bush the likes of which the tubes have never seen. It was (in my head) pithy, funny, outrageous, envelope-pushing, and everything else one wants from a blog post.
Today it’s gone (replaced overnight with a dream about the women of So You Think You Can Dance, I figure), and I’m just depressed.
On the scale of things, is the Libby commutation Bush’s most glaring abuse of power? Is Bush the first president to issue an egregious pardon or commutation? Is it likely to be a straw that breaks the backs of any camels? No. But I’ll be damned if it’s not completely pissing me off.
George W. Bush has spent his entire six and a half years in office with his middle finger extended in our direction. Now he’s full-on mooning us.
“Hey, America,” this commutation is saying. “I fucking dare you to care about anything I do ever again! You can’t! You can’t because you know I’ll just do the opposite, and when I do, you can’t do shit about it! Ha-ha!”
Is commutation a power guaranteed the President by the Constitution? Sure. Let’s not quibble over the fact that the reason that power was given to the Executive was because “one man appears to be a more eligible dispenser of the mercy of the government than a body of men” (Federalist No.74) which, let’s face it, commuting Libby’s sentence is neither an “act of mercy” nor an act by a merciful man. Thers reminds us about Karla Faye Tucker:
This is, by the way, the name that really needs to be linked forever to those of “George W. Bush” and “I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby…”
In his autobiography Bush wrote,
In every [death] case, I would ask: Is there any doubt about this individual’s guilt or innocence? And, have the courts had ample opportunity to review all the legal issues in this case?
If the jury that sentenced Karla Faye Tucker—another Texan whose death warrant Bush signed—had known of her drug-ridden childhood prostitution, would they have found mitigating circumstances to spare her life? And if, as her jury considered “future dangerousness,” they could have been made aware of the potential for good in her character that would later make her such an exemplary prisoner, would they still have voted to kill her? The jury, deprived of foresight and without thorough investigation into Karla Faye’s childhood, did not have access to these “new facts,” but George W. Bush did.
No, Bush isn’t merciful. It is to laugh. But moreover, his commutation of Libby’s sentence doesn’t meet his supposed pardon test, nor does it even pretend to.
“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 30 months in prison.”
He respects the jury’s verdict, but hasn’t ruled out a full pardon.
And as for the prison sentence, let’s look at the law, shall we?
2004 Federal Sentencing Guidelines
§2J1.2. Obstruction of Justice
(a) Base Offense Level: 14
(b) Specific Offense Characteristics
(1) If the offense involved causing or threatening to cause physical injury to a person, or property damage, in order to obstruct the administration of justice, increase by 8 levels.
(2) If the offense resulted in substantial interference with the administration of justice, increase by 3 levels.
(3) If the offense (A) involved the destruction, alteration, or fabrication of a substantial number of records, documents, or tangible objects; (B) involved the selection of any essential or especially probative record, document, or tangible object, to destroy or alter; or (C) was otherwise extensive in scope, planning, or preparation, increase by 2 levels.
So let’s be as generous as possible and assume that the offense did not cause or threaten to cause physical injury to a person (and I guess the specific offense took place after the damage had been done), and that it didn’t result in substantial interference with the administration of justice, and that it wasn’t extensive in scope, planning, or preparation. The minimum suggested sentence for a level 14 offense is 15-21 months. That’s for one count of obstruction of justice. I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not going to analyze how five counts (and one of perjury) should be sentenced, but 30 months doesn’t scream abuse of judicial power, now does it?
All this is elementary. Bush would have commuted Libby’s sentence if it had been one month, minimum security, cellmates with Paris Hilton, and the neoconservatives would have lined up behind him. They don’t think Libby did anything wrong.* They don’t think anyone did anything wrong, except Joe Wilson, and everything else was just politics.
Well, the hell with them. The entire executive branch (plus Dick Cheney, of course) and their supporters are acting in the opposite of the best interests of the United States; this fully Constitutional action simply underscores how little respect they actually have for the Constituion.
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* No, this is not permission to bring up Bill Clinton. There’s no comparison. Don’t try to make one, plskthx.
22 Responses to “Just make him stop”
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It’s no worse than much of the other stuff he’s done, but you’re right: it rankles.
But, “If abuses of the executive branch privileges are outlawed, only outlaws will abuse executive branch privileges”.
[Taken from John Roberts coming majority opinion from Fall 2009, striking down the Limitation of Executive Powers Act as unconstitutional.]**
… and yes, I know that for most of this it would indeed take a Constitutional Amendment, but I liked the way this worked with the Roberts quote… and who knows, the Roberts court might well rule an Amendment as unconstitutional if it served their preconceived agenda, anything is possible.
(And I do think that this approaches the level of the Saturday Night Massacre - which was also “legal”.)
Take a look at Tony Snow(flake)’s press conference. He says that Scooter was treated no different then any other defendant — other then Scooter didn’t petition for anything and, oh the the pardons board wasn’t involved. If fact, he claims, that politics had nothing to do with the commutation; it was simply the facts of the case. Snow than goes on to argue that the reasons Scooter’s case is different from others is secret pres stuff and he can’t discuss it. What a bunch of deceitful SOBs
You know, this is all Theresa LePore’s fault. I hope she’s happy.
It’s like the Daily Show says; the Bush admin slogan is “Eh, fuck you, what’re you gonna do about it.”
I’d be surprised if Bush didn’t do something like this. He doesn’t have to worry about re-election, he’s got a year and a half left in office, and he knows he will suffer no meaningful consequences.
On top of that, this is buying Libby’s silence. Libby will no serve no jail time, he can continue to take the Fifth in the meantime, and he can still get a full pardon if his conviction is upheld. This is the Bush administration rewarding someone for taking the fall, or at least protecting itself from an underling who doesn’t want to be the fall guy, and who may be prepared to talk if he’s left to his own devices.
My question is (and has been for about 5 years) what ARE we going to do about it? Electing a Dem majority in Congress has had fuck-all effect on these lying, cheating, murdering bastards.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19586943/
And Heeeere’s Mitt!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19586945/
And Heeeere’s Hillary!
C’mon; let’s skip this and fast-forward to ‘08 already. You know you wanna…
It’s had a fuck-all effect so far partly because the Democrats are too timid, but also partly because there isn’t a strong enough Democratic margin in the Senate to really lower the boom on these guys. You could get the simple majority in the House to impeach, but in the Senate you’d need at least 18 Republican senators in addition to all 49 Democrats, plus Lieberman (who is not a sure vote for conviction) and Sanders (who I think would be a sure vote for conviction).
That’s just not going to happen.
.To paraphrase Tenacious D: This is not the greatest post in the world. This is just a tribute.
replaced overnight with a dream about the women of So You Think You Can Dance, I figure
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Sara.
Biggest mancrush on her. EVAR!
If you do run into any trolls who throw Marc Rich in your face, remind them who Rich’s attorney was, the one who negotiated and secured the pardon.
Yep, it was Scooter.
You lost it. Keith Olbermann found it — or at least its cousin. (find video of this; the transcript does not do it justice.)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19588942/
Well, at least the neo-feudalism goes both ways. People who work for Bush are expected to be loyal to him; in return, he protects them.
Now if only we could inject some sense that he’s supposed to be taking care of the whole country, we’d be halfway to something liveable.
There is a mathematical inevitability to all of this that I’m still trying to work out.
Ah… To be brash, powerful, and completely unaccountable….
Bush thinks he’s fucking Elliot Ness.
You know I wouldn’t care about him and the entire executive branch if he weren’t raping the government, the enviroment, emergency response, education, military rediness, science, the national archives, the CDC, [insert 29 other outrages here] in the process.
We’re getting stuck with the bill while he and his cronies get rich on our backs!
FOB indeed … it pays better to be a FOW
“Last night, I went for a walk and composed an entire post in my head in which I used the Scooter Libby commutation as an excuse to release a righteous fire of condemnation on George W. Bush the likes of which the tubes have never seen. It was (in my head) pithy, funny, outrageous, envelope-pushing, and everything else one wants from a blog post.”
It’s ok; Kieth Olberman did it. Except it wasn’t funny; it was dead serious from beginning to end.
–Rick Taylor
Olbermann video.
It’s incredible.
Is this really any worse than Bush I pardoning Ollie North?
Via Prof. Juan Cole, this nice piece of snark!
http://bostonnow.com/community/blogs/thefreelance/2007/06/29/proposed-post-birth-abortion-ban-could-shut-down-iraq-war/
Auguste, my dear, may I meme you?