It wasn't about mercy

George W Bush is not a merciful man. In fact, all his past behaviour has suggested the complete opposite. He lacks the necessary conscience to actually perform an act of mercy, behave in any way charitable or empathize with anybody outside his own tight circle of well-to-do brats. Even then, if he feels the slightest bit threatened, or is advised that he is feeling threatened, (Yes. There is a distinct difference there.), he is more than willing to throw a "friend" under the bus.

While intellectually lazy, Bush is dissociated from events even when he has a direct hand in them. He eliminates his complicity in anything and everything which might cast him in a role from which he would have to take anything close to personal responsibility.

When Canadian troops were killed by a free-lance bombing mission conducted by US forces in April 2002, Bush provided no statement at all until directly questioned by a reporter. His response was little more than a shoulder-shrug. Shit happens; no big deal; fog of war. Mercy requires empathy and Bush is simply not equipped to muster that kind of inner-strength.

What is amazing, however, is how the Bush cargo-culture is describing the commutation of Scooter Libby's 30 month jail term as an act of mercy.

It is no act of mercy. Bush knows the meaning of the word only when it is something he might be compelled to beg for himself.

No. This is a blatant and predictable act of ass-covering.

Marc MacDonald details the history of George W Bush's merciful behaviour. It is and remains an empty page.

Chet puts out another brief history on "how things work" which explains how mercy simply does not enter the equation.

Both are well worth reading.

And those attempting to paint Bush as anything close to "merciful" share in advancing one of the worst criminal enterprises to ever run a developed country.

Sometimes Circumstances Change . . . .

Looks like he has opted to not abide by his own guidelines back when he assumed the office in 2001.

The times they are a changin' . . . .


(Cross-Posted at "Moving to Vancouver")

Now drag his ass into as many hearings as you can...

And after each piece of testimony ask, "You've been convicted for lying before, Mr. Libby. Are you lying again now?"

The Decider has decided that Scooter Libby was just too much of a good Republican white-boy to be allowed to go to jail. Forget the jury; forget the conservative judge; forget the law; forget the position of trust that has been violated. IOKIYAR. From the LA Times:

President Bush today wiped away the prison sentence of convicted former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, saying it was an "excessive" punishment for a "first-time offender with years of exceptional public service." On the day that Libby's last bid to stay out of prison was rejected by an appeals court, Bush said he decided to act - not to pardon Libby of the crime, but to commute his 30-month sentence. Bush's action spares frees Libby from prison, but it does not erase his conviction. It "leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby," Bush said, which will likely mean a loss of his license to practice law. Libby also must still serve two years' probation and pay a $250,000 fine.

So the question now is, what nasty little bit of crap was Libby promising to spill about the Bush administration? Take careful note: This is not a reduction in the prison sentence. This is a prison sentence which has been completely eliminated.

Talk Left has a great analysis of this event including the statement from prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Cookie Jill has more.

The criminal enterprise just keeps on getting better, doesn't it?

Cry PARDON! And wear your cowardice well

Via Carson's Post, we get a Moyer's-eye-view of the Washington neo-con elite circling the GMC Yukons to keep Scooter Libby out of jail.

We have yet another remarkable revelation of the mindset of Washington's ruling clique of neoconservative elites -- the people who took us to war from the safety of their Beltway bunkers. Even as Iraq grows bloodier by the day, their passion of the week is to keep one of their own from going to jail.
[...]
One Beltway insider reports that the entire community is grieving -- "weighted down by the sheer, glaring unfairness" of Libby's sentence.
[...]

None seem the least weighted down by the sheer, glaring unfairness of sentencing soldiers to repeated and longer tours of duty in a war induced by deception. It was left to the hawkish academic Fouad Ajami to state the matter baldly. In a piece published on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, Ajami pleaded with Bush to pardon Libby. For believing "in the nobility of this war," wrote Ajami, Scooter Libby had himself become a "casualty" -- a fallen soldier the President dare not leave behind on the Beltway battlefield.

Not a word in the entire article about the real fallen soldiers. The honest-to-God dead, and dying, and wounded. Not a word about the chaos or the cost. Even as the calamity they created worsens, all they can muster is a cry for leniency for one of their own who lied to cover their tracks.

A graphic depiction of the neo-con elitist mind at work. The actual carnage is meaningless; the loss of one of their own, who lied to protect other liars, has them running for the cover of the very constitution they conveniently ignored for six years. Incredibly, the same neo-cons who called international treaties quaint but outdated, who defiled the rule of law and who oversaw the destruction of a society thousands of miles away are suddenly waving around legal precedences, howling that the sentence handed to a criminal is too tough.

Too tough. Would that they showed even an ounce of the same compassion for anyone outside their elitist circle. This is the "get tough on crime" crowd suddenly using words which have not appeared in their lexicon for almost a decade: clemency, leniency and pardon.

It goes beyond Libby however. As they lay secure in their beds fretting over the demise of I. Lewis Libby, aircraft fly over head and make their final approach to Dover and Andrews Air Force Bases delivering a cargo of corpses and shattered bodies, hidden from public view in an attempt to conceal the product of neo-con lies. They worry about Libby because they worry about their own exposure.

Libby is a neo-con caricature. But his conviction and sentence are the realities his supporters truly fear. If they can get him; they can get them. Libby's lies were not manufactured to protect himself; they were produced to protect others. He was a water-carrier.

Added to the injury the neo-cons feel is the process by which Libby arrived in his situation. He was pursued by a conservative prosecutor, found guilty by a jury of citizens and then sentenced by a Bush administration appointed judge. And they were not to be swayed by appeals outside the law. They have a passion for the law and the neo-cons can't stand it. The idea of getting tough on crime was meant for everyone but them.

The demands for a pardon for Libby further demonstrate the exclusionist beliefs of the neo-con elitists. They don't fight the wars they start, they don't obey the laws they write and they don't accept punishment for proven felonies. They all seem to ignore that Libby's post put him in a position of great power. He was entrusted to pursue his role within the boundaries of the law. When questioned he was expected to be truthful. His obstruction of justice is not just the felony alone; it is also a breach of the public's trust.

Bush is now caught between the real rock and a hard place. If he doesn't pardon Libby, he violates the exclusionist establishment of the neo-cons by exposing their vulnerability. If he does pardon Libby he illuminates that exclusionist establishment and everything it stands for: an elitist body, completely out of touch with life outside the precincts of the beltway.

Libby's sentence is anything but harsh. Reggie Walton went easy. He should have tossed Libby a kevlar helmet, the same sub-standard body armour US troops are expected to wear in combat and an M4 carbine. Then he should have ordered Libby to perform 3 months of community service in Kirkuk. And if he survived that, he still gets 2 1/2 years in jail, 2 years probation and a fine.

So, let the neo-cons howl for a pardon. It serves to demonstrate that their macho rhetoric was always bluster. Far from the tough-guys they hold themselves out to be, they whine and snivel and throw tantrums like an out of control two-year old. Their weakness is their cowardice and they are wearing it for all to see.

Scooter, we hardly knew ye

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced today.

Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was sentenced to 2½ years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stood calmly before a packed courtroom as a federal judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt.

“People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem,” U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said.

Along with the 30 months in his own exclusive room at a federal penitentiary, Judge Walton awarded Libby a $250,000 fine and two years probation on the completion of his prison term.

The White House said that President Bush feels “terrible” for Libby and his family, but does not intend to intervene now.

Bush was informed after he got on Air Force One Tuesday to fly from the Czech Republic to Germany for the G-8 summit of industrialized nations.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino approached reporters on the aircraft to relay Bush’s reaction and said he would have no further comment.

“The president has not intervened so far in this or any other criminal matter, so he’s going to decline to do so now as well,” Perino said.

Hmmm.

I'm betting Libby doesn't spend a day in jail. I know, that's a long shot, but here's my take on it.

Bush can't really pardon Libby right now. If he does the argument that Bush and Cheney bear some culpability for the outing of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame can easily be made. Whether Bush knew about it or not, any pardon will point the finger of the public right at the oval office.

He can wait, however. Pardons of high-profile people like Libby are normally not issued until the last days in office of a sitting president. That way the president has been able to leave office and not sustain political damage. It should also be noted that Bush, (Mr. Tough On Crime), has only issued 113 pardons since taking office. That's a very low number and none of those pardons has been issued to anyone who has not completed their jail term.

Libby will, of course, appeal. That would likely keep him out of jail until late 2008... if Judge Walton had said anything about it, which he didn't. That question remains open and Walton can require Libby report to prison while any appeals are pending. Unless appellants are dangerous, however, they are not normally expected to remain in jail during the appeal process.

If that happens expect Bush to avoid any controversy and delay any pardon until his last day in office.

Libby may want to actually go to jail. It would fatten up his resume enough to, oh, I dunno, maybe get a spot in front of the camera at FOX News, a column at Townhall.com and maybe even his own radio program. Stranger things have happened.

Cheney: Need to control the message? Go to Tweety Pumpkinhead

From the Scooter Libby trial comes this little gem, courtesy of Dana Milbank:

Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you.

This delicious morsel about the "Meet the Press" host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when the former Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial of former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Flashed on the courtroom computer screens were her notes from 2004 about how Cheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had played fast and loose with evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Option 1: "MTP-VP," she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidential appearance on the Sunday show. Under "pro," she wrote: "control message."

"I suggested we put the vice president on 'Meet the Press,' which was a tactic we often used," Martin testified. "It's our best format."

Kind of puts Russert in slightly more of a spot than he was in yesterday, doesn't it? Then, further along, this:

But Martin, encouraged by Libby, secretly advised Libby and Cheney on how to respond. She put "Meet the Press" at the top of her list of "Options" but noted that it might appear "too defensive." Next, she proposed "leak to Sanger-Pincus-newsmags. Sit down and give to him." This meant that the "no-leak" White House would give the story to the New York Times' David Sanger, The Washington Post's Walter Pincus, or Time or Newsweek. Option 3: "Press conference -- Condi/Rumsfeld." Option 4: "Op-ed."

Martin was embarrassed about the "leak" option; the case, after all, is about a leak. "It's a term of art," she said. "If you give it to one reporter, they're likelier to write the story."

Now does the news media get it?

No... probably not.