Bush to commute Libby prison sentence

This is another Bush stem-cell decision. He did just enough to hack off the left wing, while not doing enough to appease the right wing.

What a tool.
 
Plus, now Scooter won't be tempted to talk about other criminal behavior he witnessed in Cheney's office.
 
Jeff Corey said:
Plus, now Scooter won't be tempted to talk about other criminal behavior he witnessed in Cheney's office.
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Yes, I just read about that. By only commuting the sentence, Bush made sure that Libby can retain his ability to plead the Fifth.
 
From Bush:

The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting.
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I'm sure that is true. He'll probably get a permanent, cushy position at the Heritage Foundation.

ETA: Oh, and that "significant" fine? Horse manure. It - plus his legal fees - will be wiped out after a couple of fund raisers sponsored by Richard Mellon Scaife.
 
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boloboffin said:
Yes, I just read about that. By only commuting the sentence, Bush made sure that Libby can retain his ability to plead the Fifth.
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No he can now continue to appeal the conviction and maybe clear his name. Face it, Fitzgerald laid a perjury trap and Libby fell into it. Fitzgerald could not charge Libby with the crime that started the investigation in the first place so he did the next best thing, convict Libby of perjury and obstruction based on his memory of conversations with reporters. I don't believe for a moment Bush would have done this had Fitzgerald not pushed for incarceration pending appeal. It was vindictive and unnecessary.
 
Tsukasa Buddha said:
Holy ****!

This... This is like a Liberal's wet dream! Damn!

Is Bush effing retarded? His approval rating can go lower, he's not at zero yet.
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I can't believe that people still believe that Bush cares about his approval rating. If he did, he would pack up and leave Iraq to please the liberals, he would not have enraged his so-called base with his Immigration plan or the Medicare prescription drug plan. He is the lousiest politician I have ever known and I admire that.
 
parky76 said:
Bill Clinton pardoned his coke head brother. Thats all I have to say.
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Who cares? The worst of it was when he commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a decision condemned by the US Senate 95-2 and 311-41 by the House. Even Hillary condemned this action, and when a House committee tried to investigate the decision the Clinton Admin. refused to let the FBI testify, and cited executve privilege in refusing to hand over related documents to Congress.

Bush should have at least made Libby pay for his commutation fair and square, like his buddy Marc Rich had to pay Billary for his pardon. :p
 
I'm upset for the same reason I was when the Senate voted for politics rather than ethics against a clearcut Perjury/Obstruction charge on Clinton....

Govt Officials should be nailed to the wall, not given easy treatment, no matter how many people think the charges are unfair.

Dubya should have let Libby sit.
 
Loss Leader said:
Kind of like impeaching a guy for lying in a deposition on an irrelevant topic in a case that was settled to the satisfaction of all parties.
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How long did Clinton sit in jail for it? Libby also lied about something that was irrelevant to the subject also. Fitzgerald gave up on his attempt to get ANYONE on the Plame outing. History has shown that once an "independent prosecutor" is appointed someone is going to go to jail one way or the other. One of the grounds for appeal will be that the appointment of Fitzgerald was unconstitutional since the independent councel statute had been repealed by a democrat congress due to their view that Starr did the same thing to Clinton that Fitz did to Libby.
 
corplinx said:
I'm upset for the same reason I was when the Senate voted for politics rather than ethics against a clearcut Perjury/Obstruction charge on Clinton....

Govt Officials should be nailed to the wall, not given easy treatment, no matter how many people think the charges are unfair.

Dubya should have let Libby sit.
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Criminals are given bail pending appeal all the time. This was petty vindictiveness on the part of Fitzgerald. Bush would have pardoned Libby had he just wanted to thumb his nose at the system.
 
He should have got a full pardon...


Libby's Liberation

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, July 02, 2007 4:20 PM PT





We've suggested before that it would be a good idea to give Libby a full pardon. After all, he was found guilty only after what was clearly a politically motivated trial during which he was charged with covering up a non-crime.

Libby's life and career have been exemplary. Yet, for misremembering some comments he made to journalists, he got 30 months in prison — a grave miscarriage of justice if ever there was one.



We've often wondered why this farce, pursued with Ahab-like zeal by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, was even allowed to continue.

Libby's own defense team put it best in describing the trial as "unwarranted, unjust and motivated by politics." Even liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen called the prosecution of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff a "runaway train."

Fair-minded Americans look at the case and see there wasn't one to be made. So why was he pursued?

In a sentencing memo filed in late May after Libby's conviction, Fitzgerald made it clear Libby wasn't his real quarry at all. He wanted to show that Libby's disclosures to the media about former CIA spook Valerie Plame "may have been personally sanctioned by the vice president."

That couldn't be proved in court, of course. It was a giant fishing expedition. Nor could Fitzgerald prove the underlying charges he promised in 2005 when he first went after Libby.

At the time, he said he would prove Libby had violated the law by revealing Plame's identity. He didn't. But he did the next best thing: He took some of Libby's poorly remembered testimony and crafted around it a sham case of obstruction and lying.

Even some of the jurors who found Libby guilty on technical points of the law said they hoped he'd be pardoned.


Bush's political advisers no doubt told him any kind of leniency would have heavy political costs. So we congratulate him for commuting Libby's sentence, and hope he'll step up to the plate again when he leaves office and issue a full pardon.
Click to expand...
 
He should have got a full pardon...


Libby's Liberation

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, July 02, 2007 4:20 PM PT





We've suggested before that it would be a good idea to give Libby a full pardon. After all, he was found guilty only after what was clearly a politically motivated trial during which he was charged with covering up a non-crime.

Libby's life and career have been exemplary. Yet, for misremembering some comments he made to journalists, he got 30 months in prison — a grave miscarriage of justice if ever there was one.



We've often wondered why this farce, pursued with Ahab-like zeal by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, was even allowed to continue.

Libby's own defense team put it best in describing the trial as "unwarranted, unjust and motivated by politics." Even liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen called the prosecution of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff a "runaway train."

Fair-minded Americans look at the case and see there wasn't one to be made. So why was he pursued?

In a sentencing memo filed in late May after Libby's conviction, Fitzgerald made it clear Libby wasn't his real quarry at all. He wanted to show that Libby's disclosures to the media about former CIA spook Valerie Plame "may have been personally sanctioned by the vice president."

That couldn't be proved in court, of course. It was a giant fishing expedition. Nor could Fitzgerald prove the underlying charges he promised in 2005 when he first went after Libby.

At the time, he said he would prove Libby had violated the law by revealing Plame's identity. He didn't. But he did the next best thing: He took some of Libby's poorly remembered testimony and crafted around it a sham case of obstruction and lying.

Even some of the jurors who found Libby guilty on technical points of the law said they hoped he'd be pardoned.


Bush's political advisers no doubt told him any kind of leniency would have heavy political costs. So we congratulate him for commuting Libby's sentence, and hope he'll step up to the plate again when he leaves office and issue a full pardon.
Click to expand...



http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=268268769518960
 
Of course he deserves at least 30 months. He's a criminal capable of terrorizing the body politic. Who knows what he'll do next -- maybe hold up the line at a fast food place trying to remember if honey-bunny wanted a #5 or a #6.

What's so infuriating about this decision -- and like the poster above I instantly recalled the "Solomon-like" stem cell nonsense that won him a whole lot of praise -- is the fake reflection and consideration. I hope it backfires, and Bush manages to infuriate the crazy "Libby should have gotten a FULL pardon" crowd along with all the sane people who know Libby should do time. I doubt that will happen, unfortunately. The crazy Bush apologists know the money and "damage to reputation" are meaningless at this point. By taking such a ridiculous position it makes Bush appear more moderate, so the sheeple who never followed this thing in detail will be tricked into thinking the boy president sounds reasonable.
 
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