Letters to the Editor
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So could
Invading Iran
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If you can get away with crapping on the Constitution...
...surely you can pardon a patsy.
The story would disappear in two weeks.
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Ahhh...
William Kristol-Meth strikes again. Respect? For what?
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And they've been right about so many things in the past
They have this one wrong, as always. Dissaproval of him is so low that a pardon could tip things right into talk of the "I" word, but seriously this time.
These genuises (with the brilliant track record on predictions about Iraq and everything else) forget that there are levels of dissaproval, all the way to raw, utter outrage. Yes many of us were at that point already but this craven act would bring over those who weren't, IMO.
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The underlying crime?
I'm getting a little tired of hearing the argument that the underlying crime could never be proved so Libby shouldn't have been prosecuted for lying about it. Wasn't Libby's evasion and lying one of the things that made the underlying crime so impossible to prove? The failure of Libby's supporters (who seem to be predominantly hard core Bush supporters) to recognize and admit that he actually did something wrong is so frustrating. Apparently, to them, nothing can ever be wrong that serves Bush and/or his agenda.
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Bignose,
Good point. I'd rather he pardon a criminal to "restore his legacy" than start another war.
What would be even better would be for cheney to take credit for the presidential pardon as part of the Draft Cheney in 2008 campaign. Some on the deluded right have actually proposed a Cheney/Gonzalez or Cheney/Rice ticket. I would love to see it.
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Bush will pardon Libby.
It's inevitable. I have to laugh at the discussion that it would hurt/help shrubs political karma. He has done, over his entire life, any god damned thing he pleased, ruining lives, property, and goodwill along the way with nary a care.
So, buckle-up. Libby's a free man soon. That the "right" is demanding a pardon for a convicted liar/fellon says legion as their ethics and morality.
I wonder if all of those clowns who utilized their "moral" barometer to vote for Bush in 2004 are coming to realize that if one placed someone else, say the guy next door, in the same seat Libby's sitting in, would Bush pardon him? Will there a strong push from Kristol to, say, pardon Jefferson for his about-to-be convictions for his felonies? Would there be outrage that the authorities let a criminal go free? What makes Libby less a felon than anyone else convicted by a jury of his peers? Anyone, anyone paying attention to Libby's lies and ultimate conviction realize his crime was lying. He lied to a Grand Jury and got exactly what he deserved. Deal with it.
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If it can't hurt him then it can't help him either
I know we're lead to believe that loyalty is the only thing that Lord Monkey values but it's clearly a one-way street. No, nothing our Maximum Primate does is without political calculation. There is simply not enough upside to him pardoning the fall guy. That's what fall guys do - they take the fall.
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A pardon may help Cheney, not Bush, and a pardon will most certainly lower Republican chances for '08
What's the ribald old saying? "Bush could fuck a chicken on the White House lawn at high noon and his approval rating would stay the same."
But who really gains by a Libby pardon? Dick Cheney. Now that Libby is a convicted fellon, the question is: Does he want to be away from his family for 30 months, or maybe cut a deal with Patrick Fitzgerald to testify against his old boss Dick?
After all, Cheney didn't exactly rush to Libby's side during this whole trial. Pardon or not, Libby is kryptonite to the Republican Party. He'll never get another job. He'll be disbarred to practicing law.
In other words, he's fucked for life. The Republicans will shun him like a leper, so he might as well save some jail time, flip his boss and write a book.
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lying about a crime that the prosecutor can't even prove was committed
I'm not a lawyer so maybe there's some legal nuance that I'm missing but Valerie Plame's was outed so how can it be denied that a crime was committed in doing that? Maybe they don't know who committed the crime but that doesn't mean one was not committed.
They never caught the Zodiac killer but is there any doubt that the killings were a crime?
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GOP Circular Reasoning
Yep--according to the "deep-thinker" Bill Kristol, Libby was "convicted of lying about a crime that the prosecutor can't even prove was committed"--but what he and the GOP noise machine conveniently ignore is that the prosecutor couldn't prove it because Libby LIED! In Fitzgerald's words, Libby "threw sand in the eyes" of the investigators. Kristol's circular reasoning wouldn't satisfy a fourth grader. But it seems to satisfy our uncritical mainstream media.
Apparently, lying about treasonous activities (or being convicted of actual treasonous activities) is acceptable--(see Libby and Cap Weinberger), but a lie about a "hummer" in the Oval Office constitutes "high crimes and misdemeanors." Yet, nobody in the mainstream media seems to pick up on this hypocrisy either!
I said it three months ago on Salon, and I'll say it again--the ultimate outcome in this drama is inevitable, "a pardon will be granted by Dubya on Christmas Eve when nobody is paying attention--just like Daddy did with Cap Weinberger."
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How About Some Political Foresight From the Democrats?
It would be really refreshing to see some political planning and intelligence from the Democrats for a change. Specifically, every one of them ought to screaming to the high heavens starting right now that Bush is absolutely planning to shit all over the Constitution and subvert the rule of law just as he always does, this time by pardoning Libby. In fact, they could probably goad the petulant imbecile into doing it just by continuously goading him, like the dumb animal he is. And who the hell cares anyway? I sure don't give a damn how long Libby serves in prison. I care very much however - and so should the Democrats - about excoriating and demonizing Bush at every opportunity, and branding the Republicans with Libby's misdeeds. The best way to do that is to raise the bar on a pardon with constant denunciations, so that setting Libby free will make Bush even more intensely despised than he is now.