Scooter Libby's Sentence Commuted

[DerickM 1]

Yes they will, I will remember to point that out to them later on.

[mrspruett 0]

Don't all presidents pardon their law-breaking cronies when they get ready to leave office? Granted, it is kinda early in Bush's last term to do this. Clinton, Nixon, and probably a lot more have done this too. I think it is sort of customary. However........ that doesn't mean that it is the right thing to do.

[L8BloomR 1]

Don't all presidents pardon their law-breaking cronies when they get ready to leave office? Granted, it is kinda early in Bush's last term to do this. Clinton, Nixon, and probably a lot more have done this too. I think it is sort of customary. However........ that doesn't mean that it is the right thing to do.

Yes, most presidents do a bunch of pardons when they leave office, but I believe Clinton did many of his thoughout his time in office. I posted a link earlier in this thread showing the dates and details of his pardons. Bush has done the least amount of pardons of any recent president, I believe. I don't like pardons. They just seem so dirty--- particularly Clinton's, since some involved his brother, friends of his brother, bomb-making terrorists, and the husband of a big contributor to his campaign. Before some of you "flame" me, I don't like this one of Bush's, either, but do not know the details of any others he has done. I will say it again. I don't like pardons.... ANY pardons. But it is within the rights of any president to do them no matter what any of us think.

[gadgetlady 4]

Yes they will, I will remember to point that out to them later on.

Hopefully you won't get the opportunity

When is Fred Thompson declaring, anyway?

[L8BloomR 1]

Hopefully you won't get the opportunity

When is Fred Thompson declaring, anyway?

Thanks for the reminder.... maybe all is not lost!! :biggrin1:

[bitteroldhag 0]

I'm just cutting and pasting from an email (political newsletter) I received today. I don't really have any other comment:

Justice: Those who criticize President Bush's decision to commute Scooter Libby's 30-month prison sentence should remember: The punishment should fit the crime. And in this case, there wasn't one.

Yet, that hasn't stopped Bush's foes from going into high dudgeon about Bush letting Libby avoid jail. ...

[P]residential candidate Hillary Clinton, made this comment, dripping in irony: "This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice."

Is this the same Democratic Party that shamed the White House for eight years in the 1990s with its illicit activity and lying? ...

Just checking. It's pretty rich listening to the Democratic grandees wax eloquent about the "rule of law." As we recall, just a few years back, they seemed to think the nation's laws were mere suggestions. ...

Let's return to the previous occupant of the White House -- relevant, of course, because he might soon be back in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as first husband if Hillary can win in 2008.

As we said, the "equal justice" argument against clemency really founders when you compare Libby with what took place under the Clinton administration and after. The difference in treatment is stark.

President Clinton: Impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice, but acquitted by the U.S. Senate. His impeachment on the obstruction charge was basically a hung jury -- 50-50.

In 1999, District Judge Susan Webber Wright cited Clinton's "willful failure" to tell the truth and failure to obey the court's orders of discovery in citing him for civil contempt in the Paula Jones case. (Jones, remember, claimed she was sexually assaulted by Clinton.)

Again, Clinton lied and obstructed an investigation. Yet he got off with a hand-slap: No prison time. An admission of misconduct, a $25,000 fine and a five-year suspension of his license. He had to pay Jones' lawyers' fees and some court costs -- $90,686 total -- but no felony was put on his record.

Based on all this, the Arkansas Supreme Court made Clinton surrender his Arkansas law license and he subsequently resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court bar -- just before they were about to suspend him.

Sandy Berger: Former National Security Adviser Berger pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing classified documents from the National Archives, destroying some of those documents (obstruction), and lying to federal investigators (perjury).

Berger hid secret NSA documents in his socks and pants. He stole and apparently destroyed secret documents from the national archives. ...

He took five copies, but returned just two. Again, perjury and obstruction of justice? Berger, too, got off with no prison time, a $50,000 fine, two years' probation and 100 hours of community service. No felony on his record. He also lost his law license.

Then there are the Bill Clinton pardons. Those now screaming about the leniency granted to Libby surely forget that Clinton issued 140 pardons on his last day in office. Many are questionable, to say the least. ...

Clinton commuted sentences for 16 members of the Puerto Rican separatist group FALN. That group had set off more than 100 bombs in the U.S., and the 16 had been convicted for a number of violent crimes, ranging from sedition to bomb-making. ...

Clinton also pardoned carnival operators Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory. How did carnival operators get on his radar? Turns out they had loaned Hillary's brother, Tony Rodham, $107,000, which he never repaid. ...

Then there was Carlos Vignali, a cocaine trafficker whose sentence Clinton commuted. And Almon Glenn Braswell, who was found guilty of mail fraud and perjury but won a pardon. ...

Braswell and Vignali each paid Hillary's other brother, Hugh Rodham, $200,000, hoping he could win them clemency. Rodham returned the money, but only after the scandal became public. ...

Others also found grace under Clinton's pardon frenzy -- former Rep. Mel Reynolds (found guilty of sexual assault on a child and later of bank fraud); Susan MacDougal (pardoned for her role in the Whitewater scandal); and President Clinton's brother Roger Clinton (pardoned for earlier drug convictions).

As we said, the list is a long one. We gave just a taste of its sordid contents. But it puts Scooter Libby's case in context. ...

Clinton lying about oral sex never seemed to be that awful to me. I would have lied too. But let us remember Richard Nixon who committed crimes and was close to impeachment. He resigned rather than be impeached. Also let us remember how absolutely awful the Republican party was during Clinton's presidency. They were witch hunting and finally found a witch. George W. Bush has lied repeatedly to the public about just about everything. If he hasn't lied, he has kept information secret. Scooter Libby was the fall guy for the Bush administration which apparently sees no problem in outing a spy, despite the number of people who can be killed because of this. But then the Bush administration sees no problem with denying liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, no problem with torturing people and certainly no problem with invading a country that has nothing to do with terrorism. Cheney can't decide if his office is a member of the executive or the Congress. He has lied and refused information to Congress. This has got to be the worst administration in my lifetime and I lived through Nixon. I wish Dwight Eisenhower or Barry Goldwater were alive. They were decent Republicans. In fact, they were real Republicans and, though I'm a Democrat, I respected them. I do not respect the current Republican administration.:angry

[Lucy 0]

Scooter Libby is a scapegoat for Dick Cheney. Regardless of whether Libby was convicted or not, the real criminal in this scenario (and many others, I might add) is Cheney. I somehow don't see Cheney receiving any convictions in the near future, so justice isn't going to be served here, Libby or no Libby.

Is it really so surprising? Our government is run by right wing, rich, white men who only care about making money and covering their own asses. Libby is just another puppet caught up in the system.

[lisah25 3]

lisa, you're cool.

Why thanks!

[lisah25 3]

"No one here thinks that Bush is perfect or has done nothing wrong. But sometimes the inflammatory statements about how terrible everything he does is forces those of us who remember our recent history to remind others that ALL presidents do things that we disagree with. I personally think Clinton was an embarrassment; you think Bush is. That does not mean that I think Bush is a perfect president and hopefully that doesn't mean you think Clinton was. But if someone is horrified by something a president does, it is helpful to hear how other presidents handled a similiar situation in order to put it into its proper perspective. And I can guarantee that if a Democrat gets into the White House and does something that appears wrong or dispicable, those of you on the left will bring up Bush's failings again and again and again.....

I have to agree, when we do get a Dem president, some will bring up what Bush did, we as a country on all sides have gotten too partisan. Too many look at what party someone is in before deciding how they feel about an act. And it will be just as wrong when the Dems do it as I believe it is now.

The problem I have is that I hear "Clinton did X" and only that. I don't hear very much "and Bush is wrong to do it" tied to that.

[L8BloomR 1]

I have to agree, when we do get a Dem president, some will bring up what Bush did, we as a country on all sides have gotten too partisan. Too many look at what party someone is in before deciding how they feel about an act. And it will be just as wrong when the Dems do it as I believe it is now.

I totally agree with you here, lisah. I think most of us are guilty of this, myself included. I'm glad you posted...

[green 6]

I read a novel written by Lewis (Scooter) Libby. It was called The Apprentice and it was, it seems, a first novel. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it and I am kind of snobbish. Snobbish enough to wonder why an adult male would agree to allow himself to be known as Scooter(????)! Sh!t, I wouldn't even call one of my animals Scooter. I wouldn't even call a handicapped person in a turbo-charged wheelchair Scooter!

The man is literate and he has written a fine first novel but I still don't get this Scooter-biz. What's with the pre-adolescent nick-name, eh? Can someone out there enlighten me?? Perspiring minds wanna know.......

[mrspruett 0]

Green, I just spit out my Water while reading your Scotter comments!

[green 6]

Green, I just spit out my Water while reading your Scotter comments!

Aha! Mission accomplished.

[L8BloomR 1]

The man is literate and he has written a fine first novel but I still don't get this Scooter-biz. What's with the pre-adolescent nick-name, eh? Can someone out there enlighten me?? Perspiring minds wanna know.......

I believe Libby's father called him that as a baby, for the way he "scooted" around....

We have a famous moon-walking astronaut named "Buzz" (Aldrin), and I know quite a few "Buddy"s, a couple of them very prominent locally, who prefer that over their real name.

I dunno, I guess we Americans love nicknames! :biggrin1:

[METALBAND 0]

Gadgetladay and MsDad, you can not kiss and make up. That ruins all of the fun, every time the main characters of a show lose the tension, the show fails!! We need the gloves back on right now to keep us interested!!!! LOL

Just kidding......I love to read your posts....you both keep it fun and lively!!!