Posts
The Scooter Chronicles
By Michael Weiss / July 3, 2007
I really haven't followed the case and its stultifying minutiae carefully, so I won't comment on the defendant's innocence or guilt. However, some statements are self-evidently silly and histrionic, and Andrew Sullivan has made the issuance of them his signature blog form:
It is hard to think of an action more contemptuous of the rule of law – except for so many decisions made by this lawless president, acting as a monarch. De facto pardoning or commuting of a sentence was once a royal prerogative that even kings reserved for those they didn't know, convicted clearly unjustly, whose sentence had often largely been served. And yet Bush uses it in office for a friend, hours after the failure of his appeal, to protect his own political and legal liability for jeopardizing intelligence and compromising national security.
The phrase bandied around the Daily Dish for last twelve hours has been "rule of law." In what sense has this president violated such an adamantine concept with respect to Scooter Libby, exercising, as is his full constitutional right, the ability to pardon or grant clemency to convicted criminals?Â
Timothy Noah — surely another a beetle-browed agent of Dick Cheney's master plan — fills in some of the abuse-of-power blanks that the Saint Sebastian of the Right evidently felt were too niggling to fill in himself:
Judge Reggie Walton went overboard in sentencing Libby to 30 months. This was about twice as long as the prison term recommended by the court's probation office, and if Libby hadn't been a high-ranking government official, there's a decent chance he would have gotten off with probation, a stiff fine, and likely disbarment. Walton gave Libby 30 months and a $250,000 fine, then further twisted the knife by denying Libby's routine request to delay the sentence while his lawyers appealed it. (Libby was duly assigned the federal prison register number 28301-016, but Libby's lawyers managed to move quickly enough to keep Libby out of the slammer until his appeal was denied on July 2, the same day Bush commuted his sentence.) The voluminous pleas for leniency from Libby's A-list friends seem to have annoyed Walton, who erred on the side of severity not in spite of Libby's high position in government but because of it. Walton wanted to make an example of him.
The term for Walton in conservative circles would be "activist judge." But far be it from the author of The Conservative Soul to know one when he sees it.
POST A COMMENT
"And I suppose if Bush decided, in a gesture of Christian forgiveness, to pardon everyone currently serving federal time he'd be within the letter of the law as well."
If there were another legal case occupying the headlines for two years involving a former member of the executive branch, wouldn't you expect the president to pay better attention to this than to other federal convictions? Â
"True, but Walton's sentence accorded well with the more stringent sentences pushed by Bush's own Justice Dept of late. So I guess the relevant question would be why the probation office suggested a term so much more lenient than that standard."Â
Those now squealing in what they suppose is a delicious irony that Bush's own Justice Dept. set these draconian sentencing standards assume an administration is monolithic and without internal contradictions or criticism. This is the same logic, you'll note, that easily confuses Richard Armitage with Scooter Libby. Another relevant question would be — since everyone's apparently in on the butt-covering scam — why a judge the president appointed went ahead with such a stringent sentence?Â
Andrew Sulivan alludes to "making an example" of a high-powered figure almost in the same breath as he emits "rule of law." One could argue that the true test of banana republic standards is feeding a ravening public someone it can see sent to the clink after an exhaustive and fruitless investigation into state corruption.Â
"Right again, but Bush commuted the weaselly Libby's sentence before the latter had a chance to appeal, a move with few precedents.Some may wonder whether this was designed to foreclose the possibility that Libby might turn state's evidence before his conviction on appeal."
Another move with few precedents was Judge Walton's refusal to hear Libby's request to have the sentence delayed before appeal and the personal antipathy he exhibited for the defendant's A-list supporters. But I suppose speeding up jurisprudence is okay, so long as it comes at the expense of the weasely.
When you're not an ideologue like me, no other motive in this disgusting episode need be questioned other than that of the president. Nice work if you can get it.
So a bunch of Jewish journalists like Noah thinks Libby got an unfair sentence. Big surprise! Goes to show how the Zionist third column in this country thinks it is beyond the law.
“The phrase bandied around the Daily Dish for last twelve hours has been “rule of law.” In what sense has this president violated such an adamantine concept with respect to Scooter Libby, exercising, as is his full constitutional right, the ability to pardon or grant clemency to convicted criminals?”
Right. And I suppose if Bush decided, in a gesture of Christian forgiveness, to pardon everyone currently serving federal time he’d be within the letter of the law as well. So what?
“Judge Reggie Walton went overboard in sentencing Libby to 30 months. This was about twice as long as the prison term recommended by the court’s probation office….”
True, but Walton’s sentence accorded well with the more stringent sentences pushed by Bush’s own Justice Dept of late. So I guess the relevant question would be why the probation office suggested a term so much more lenient than that standard.
“Turning state’s evidence happens before you’re convicted, not while you’re serving your sentence…”
Right again, but Bush commuted the weaselly Libby’s sentence before the latter had a chance to appeal, a move with few precedents.Some may wonder whether this was designed to foreclose the possibility that Libby might turn state’s evidence before his conviction on appeal.
Do you really believe what you’re writing about this disgusting episode? Are you genuinely untroubled by Bush’s transparent indifference to justice, in this case and in general? Is your fealty to ideology so devout that you are compelled to justify even this exercise in banana republic shamelessness?
Happens before you're convicted, not while you're serving your sentence (which is what you avoid or reduce by turning state's). Added to which, the fact that Bush's own Justice Department initiated the investigation into the Plame affair tends to disprove the theory that protecting "embarrassing facts" about that administration was the first priority.
Noah argues that:
(1) Since he thinks that Walton gave Libby too much jail time, this somehow means that Bush was justified in ensuring that Libby got NO jail time.
(2) Since Clinton got off without jail time for covering up an entirely voluntary affair, this somehow proves that Libby should get off without jail time for lying in a case involving the question of whether the President of the United States deliberately lied the country into a war.
(3) Bush “didn’t pre-empt a prosecution that might reveal embarrassing facts about himself, as Bush’s father did. He waited until it was all over, and he acted humanely.” Jesus Christ. The only way the prosecution of Libby could have (officially) revealed “embarrassing facts” about Bush was, of course, if Libby got jail time and thus decided to turn state’s evidence — which means, of course, that Bush obviously DID “preempt” the power of “that prosecution to reveal embarrassing facts about himself”. Have Noah and Weiss been taking Stupid Pills recently?
So did the sheriff actualised himself as royalty by pardoning Paris Hilton?
Joke aside, the worrying thing about the Libby case is that in the end no-one gets punished (severely) for burning a clandestine CIA agent. It’s bad enough recruiting decent operatives in the current world, if on top of that their own administration burns them and no-one pays for it, who is going to be applying to the clandestine service tomorrow?
Wanna post your own comments? Gotta log in first!