Better Commutations

Radley Balko | July 4, 2007

Over at Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a list of people more deserving of presidential mercy than Scooter Libby.

Via David Boaz.

Comments

Guy Montag|7.4.07 @ 8:54AM|#

You mean they actually did less than nothing to 'deserve' 30 months in jail?

M|7.4.07 @ 9:31AM|#

Link glitched.

Asharak|7.4.07 @ 9:48AM|#

You mean they actually did less than nothing to 'deserve' 30 months in jail?

This cements your status as a phony libertarian more than anything else.

JT Barrie|7.4.07 @ 9:50AM|#

As governor of Texas, GW adamantly refused to pardon retarded people on death row or to commute to life sentence the widely acclaimed born again murderess. Is Scooter more pathetic than retarded people [why not pardon "Alzheimer" Alberto Gonzalez - who is rapidly losing his memories] or more reformed than the born again Christian lady?

This smacks of Scooter being a "team player" with a whole lotta embarrassing info on administration misconduct for the comfort of other criminally oriented administration zealots.

SIV|7.4.07 @ 10:10AM|#

This cements your status as a phony libertarian more than anything else.


Yeah because all TRUE libertarians are outraged.....OUTRAGED! at the crimes and lies of Bushco.

thoreau|7.4.07 @ 10:37AM|#

Yeah because all TRUE libertarians are outraged.....OUTRAGED! at the crimes and lies of Bushco.

Yes. Yes we are.

D.A. Ridgely|7.4.07 @ 10:40AM|#

But it doesn't follow, I think, that all of us are outraged over every single thing Bush has done.

|7.4.07 @ 11:01AM|#

SIV,

I don't want to be accused of wearing hemp, but I must say... The Man and His Lies have, you know, like, made me pretty fucking outraged. Where'd my sign go?

Peace out and happy Independence Day! What are you doing today to celebrate?

|7.4.07 @ 11:06AM|#

Ah hah! Here's my sign!

SIV|7.4.07 @ 11:11AM|#

Focusing on Bush, just like the Right focused on Clinton distracts from the real problem which is the State itself. The left was outraged over Reagan and Bush I until Clinton was elected than you didn't hear a peep out of them while the Right fumed about Liberty being crushed under the jackboot of the Clinton/Reno Justice Department.
The pattern repeats ad infinitum.Those out of power rail against the elected official rather than the system as a whole while those sympathetic to the Party in Power overlook it's excesses.

There is plenty to oppose the President on.
The Scooter Libby sentence commutation is less than trivial.

The Wine Commonsewer®|7.4.07 @ 11:57AM|#

I'm outraged daily, but that's cuz I need to take a pill. That said, the Libby pardon is really not that important in the overall scheme of things. It was totally expected. What wasn't expected is that Libby remains a felon. GWB could have wiped the slate clean but chose not to. That says something.

Now here's something to be outraged about.

Now, I'm going to go put up the Don't Tread On Me flag and celebrate the birth of the only country in the world where Home Depot is open on Independence Day.

The Wine Commonsewer®|7.4.07 @ 11:59AM|#

Oh, yeah, and all the people on FAMM's list probably ARE more deserving of a pardon than old Scoot.

Tell them not to hold their breath because they'll prolly turn blue.

|7.4.07 @ 12:09PM|#

Just wanted to wish all my American friends a Happy Independence Day.

May you ever enjoy your freedoms!

|7.4.07 @ 12:14PM|#

Well, we're enjoying our sodden day off. My son's Cub Scout den led the neighborhood bike parade, which is good because mud is easier to get out of clothes than dye from soaked bunting. Of course, being a lifelong Texan, I'm more worried about the drought that's bound to start very soon than the flood going on right now.

Happy Fourth, everybody.

Alice Bowie|7.4.07 @ 12:29PM|#

We should Pardon

- Paris Hilton
- That Black boy who got a blowjob and 12years
- Martha Stewart

Alice Bowie|7.4.07 @ 12:34PM|#

As governor of Texas, GW adamantly refused to pardon retarded people on death row or to commute to life sentence the widely acclaimed born again murderess. Is Scooter more pathetic than retarded people [why not pardon "Alzheimer" Alberto Gonzalez - who is rapidly losing his memories] or more reformed than the born again Christian lady?


GW Bush's DWI and Cocaine incident were SEALED by a Program in the Texas Justice system called the ACD(adjornment Contemplating Dismissal). With this program, Minor Criminal Records are SEALED after a year of good behavior.

AS GOVERNOR, GW Bush eliminated this program...stating that NO ONE DESERVES a second chance.

Rabbit Scribe|7.4.07 @ 12:56PM|#

Yeah because all TRUE libertarians are outraged.....OUTRAGED! at the crimes and lies of Bushco.

Bush thinks a formal state of war exists whenever he says it does, and this empowers him to do whatever he wants. Yes, all true Libertarians are outraged by the President.

|7.4.07 @ 1:24PM|#

Bush has don a lot of bad things --> Scooter Libby should go to jail on trumped up charges.

Drug dealers have killed a lot of people --> SWAT teams should bust down the door of anybody suspected of possessing drugs.

REAL libertarians love to ratchet up the power of the state in order to make symbolic gestures against undeserving people in an effort that does absolutely nothing to solve the problem.

|7.4.07 @ 1:54PM|#

The extreme rarity of a Bush pardon or commutation makes it hard to take the Libby commutation in stride.

bill|7.4.07 @ 2:05PM|#

The Bush family is a known criminal organization. Why does it surprise anyone when he does stuff like that.

dhex|7.4.07 @ 2:08PM|#

"Focusing on Bush, just like the Right focused on Clinton distracts from the real problem which is the State itself."

amen.

M|7.4.07 @ 2:32PM|#

Why doesn't some clever kid make a video illustrating a narration of the Declaration of Independence's list of England's offenses with footage of contemporary gummint actions?

|7.4.07 @ 3:53PM|#

M | July 4, 2007, 2:32pm | #

Why doesn't some clever kid make a video illustrating a narration of the Declaration of Independence's list of England's offenses with footage of contemporary gummint actions?

I'm sure it has been pointed out previously, but I note that the current President is the third one with the given name 'George'....

|7.4.07 @ 3:57PM|#

A politician solved a "problem" of his with a politcal solution.

I just don't have it in me to get worked up over it, especially when it's an exercise of a legitimate presidential power.

SIV|7.4.07 @ 4:58PM|#

Here is somebody BushCo can pardon......

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8Q5SLF00&show_article=1

Hopped-up on goofballs and wacky-tobacky driving recklessly fast in his Hybrid Prius.

mnuez|7.4.07 @ 5:12PM|#

Free at last...

Free at last...

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!!


Lewis Ismail Scooter Libby is free, and Justice shines her beatific smile for the world.

Back in the days of Scootie's trial I engaged in a daydream whereby I imagined myself a member of the jury charged with judging Scootie's innocence or guilt. I knew that things looked bad. I knew that my fellow jurors would vote fast for conviction. He was clearly a scummy lying little thing. He was lying \ under oath \ again and again and again... BUT - in my daydream I had him exonerated. He was not found guilty. I spoke from the mind and heart to my fellow jurors (and later on at a press-conference to the world at large) and explained that, though we could not of course call him innocent, we could never, in good conscience, send him away to jail when he was doing nothing worse than any other political appointee does and where in this administration, and with reference to THIS EXACT crime (or misdemeanor, or 'naughty thing', or whatever) he was clearly the fall guy. It was clear as day that there were others more guilty than he - not least of all Karl Rove, and that he was being offered up as a sacrificial lamb so that the others (not least of all KARL ROVE) could make their getaway.

So, yes - Was he guilty of playing disgusting little political games in promiscuously drooling out the name "Valerie Plame Wilson" everywhere? Yes, of course. And is that repulsive and deservant of having him placed naked in the stockades? Certainly. Did he then go and lie about it, blah, blah, blah... Sure, that's how the political game is played. So should he not then be punished by our court system? No.

Is it just to slap a thousand dollar fine on a black guy speeding thirty miles over the speed limit in a school zone? Sure. What about if he was just one of ten speeding drivers on that road at that exact time and only he was pulled over on account of his race. Is it still just for him to be punished? Of course not. Only when the law is applied equally to all is it just to punish someone for a crime. When most are allowed to skate free, it is immoral and unjust to pick only one person out for punishment on account of some less-than-special status that he has.

And so with Libby.

Making a big deal out of his perjury is laughable. This takes place every day in Washington. Perjury and leaks and character assassinations and lies and bribes are what political systems are made of. It is the fuel upon which Washington runs. To then, therefore, act all shocked by Scootie's wrongdoings is ridiculous, sanctimonious, hypocritical and disgusting. For that reason, I would not have found Scootie guilty but would rather - in my imagined press-conference - have indicted the entire system.

-------

And for all of the above reasons, Scootie's pardon stinks to high hell. Was he unjustly sent away? Sort of. He was tried for a crime that everyone else in his line of work commits and which others have committed far far more egregiously and have laughed with all the way to the bank. But once this injustice occurred, should this whoring bureaucrat be at the top of the list in line for a commutation? Of all of the truly and completely and absolutely innocent people rotting away in jail, should this man, who was not actually innocent, be the first to be shown mercy and clemency?

Our police and justice system is corrupt. In every case it shows favor to the well-to-do, connected and well-lawyered and shows frivolous cruelty and presumption of guilt to the indigent, non-connected and non-lawyered. Should not then these indigent and illiterates have the president's consideration before a man of the stature and money of Libby - who had every bit of legal advice and assistance any defendant could possibly want?

-------

So - should Libby have been sentenced? No. He in no way deserved to be selected for punishment when there were others who were far more guilty.

Should his sentence have been erased? No. He in no way deserved to be selected for special mercy when there are others far more worthy of such grace and reconsideration of their sentences than he.

Welcome to justice.


mnuez
www.mnuez.blogspot.com

|7.4.07 @ 5:30PM|#

How much should Ms. Stewart be awarded now that "libby" is free?

Even Paris was incarserated.

|7.4.07 @ 5:31PM|#

Alice Bowie,
Not using racist language, or deliberately misrepresenting people in this thread huh?

|7.4.07 @ 5:37PM|#

"GWB could have wiped the slate clean but chose not to. That says something."

Sure, it says that the pardon will have to wait for the last day in office (as usual), but in the meantime Scooter doesn't have to go to jail.

xy109e3|7.4.07 @ 6:05PM|#

President OJ (Obstruction of Justice) Bush believes in Libby's right to takes the 5th to protect Cheney (and himself) from criminal testimony

S.A. Miller|7.4.07 @ 8:07PM|#

This cements your status as a phony libertarian more than anything else.

Yes, as we all know... anyone who doesn't parrot Democrat Talking Points isn't a real libertarian.

|7.4.07 @ 8:26PM|#

Yes, as we all know... anyone who doesn't parrot Democrat Talking Points isn't a real libertarian.

No, I think it's more because he completely missed the point that there are many, many people far more deserving of a commuted sentence because disagreeing with the President seems to Guy (the big lug!) to always be a Democratic talking point.

|7.4.07 @ 8:36PM|#

Yes, as we all know... anyone who doesn't parrot Democrat Talking Points isn't a real libertarian.

Last I checked, PERJURY was a felony, not a partisan talking point!

Doesn't matter what party, do the crime....etc.

But, no big deal. The preznit's clemency powers are broad and expansive.

And he had mercy on "a good soldier". To bad that his "compassionate conservatism" ends there!

And yeah, all the Bushbots who are saying that outing some NOVA Soccer Mom is no big deal would be talking out of the other side of their faces if some DONKEY had done the same fucking thing!

nebby|7.4.07 @ 8:41PM|#

I thought perjury was OK if I didn't think what you perjured about was a big deal.

CLINTONS COCK!

|7.4.07 @ 8:44PM|#

But then I suppose I shouldn't think perjury is a big deal.

After all I already know that if you're a public figure with an R or a D after your name it's a pure accident that any statement you make is the actual truth.

"How do I know the motherfucker is lying? His motherfucking lips are MOVING!"

Old joke. Always true!

|7.4.07 @ 9:41PM|#

Should Scooter Libby have spent 3 years in prison. No, he should have regained his memory and folded on Cheney, Rove, Bush,etc.

The only logical reason for commuting his sentence rather than issuing a pardon was to allow him to continue to claim the 5th when caled before Congress again.

I saw no one on the FAMM list any less deserving of clemency than Libby.

|7.4.07 @ 10:52PM|#

No clearly the people on the FAMM list are more deserving of clemency.

They should have been pardoned long ago. And they should be the priority.

That said pardoning Libby isn't wrong. Not pardoning those other people is.

SIV|7.4.07 @ 10:59PM|#

Too bad Scooter isn't made of sterner stuff.
Like Admiral James Stockdale or Susan McDougal.
As all the good liberaltarians know he would have rolled over and sung like a canary if he was facing real hard time. Good thing BushCo spared him to keep him clammed up. Scooter ain't man enough to carry Susan McDougal's jock strap.

Guy Montag|7.5.07 @ 12:13AM|#

Asharak,

You mean they actually did less than nothing to 'deserve' 30 months in jail?

This cements your status as a phony libertarian more than anything else.

I wear your false badge with honor.

|7.5.07 @ 7:14AM|#

That said pardoning Libby isn't wrong. Not pardoning those other people is.

I'm sure Bush would pardon anyone who received an excessive sentence. Maybe you should consider whether those other people deserve it, unlike Scooter whose only "crime" was not snitching. It's like prosecuting Al Capone for tax evasion, because he didn't commit any real crimes. They can always get you on a technicality. The prosecutor and judge were both Democrats and that probably explains it.

|7.5.07 @ 8:26AM|#

Max,
In your post, I do detect sarcasm, but I don't detect a point.

|7.5.07 @ 10:56AM|#

I don't understand the Scooter doesn't deserve to go to prison position. This isn't Slick Willy covering up his extramarital activities. Libby committed perjury to thwart an investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame. Doesn't that make him an accomplice to a felony?

I thought Bill Clinton was bullshit because his marital problems are none of my business. I thought Martha Stewart was bullshit because what the jury convicted her for wasn't a crime. But Scooter is part of a criminal cover-up that undermined a CIA agent. How is he "not guilty"?

|7.5.07 @ 2:32PM|#

Warren,
The Bill Clinton thing was more about him passing a law that he did not follow himself. Sexually harassing a woman, and then perjuring himself about it.

The Martha Stewart thing was bs, it was potentially about ripping off less influential people. But I think it was probably bs.

The Scooter Libby thing was a political witch hunt.
The guy who actually did any wrong doing was Armitage, and it wasn't really wrong doing.

As far as undermine a CIA agent? Undermine her ability to use her job to bash the president?