The Problem With Pardoning Libby

[ProSense]

The Problem With Pardoning Libby

President Bush may well pardon Scooter Libby. But he’d have to flout Justice Department guidelines in order to do it.

Web-exclusive commentary
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Updated: 6:43 p.m. ET March 7, 2007

March 7, 2007 - The pardon campaign began almost immediately. No sooner had word come down in federal court that I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby had been convicted on four felony counts than conservative allies began pressuring President Bush to step in and effectively overturn the verdict. The National Review Online was first off the block, publishing a “Pardon Libby” editorial barely two hours after the verdict was announced; the piece denounced the entire CIA-leak case as a “travesty” and the product of “media scandal-mongering.” The Wall Street Journal followed suit Wednesday, saying Bush shouldn’t even wait for Libby to file his appeal. “The time for a pardon is now,” the Journal declared. (The Web site of the Libby Defense Trust, www.scooterlibby.com, linked to those and other editorials calling for a pardon Wednesday.)

But there’s one significant roadblock on the path to Libby’s salvation: Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff does not qualify to even be considered for a presidential pardon under Justice Department guidelines.

From the day he took office, Bush seems to have followed those guidelines religiously. He's taken an exceedingly stingy approach to pardons, granting only 113 in six years, mostly for relatively minor fraud, embezzlement and drug cases dating back more than two decades. Bush’s pardons are “fewer than any president in 100 years,” according to Margaret Love, former pardon attorney at the Justice Department.

Following the furor over President Bill Clinton’s last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich (among others), Bush made it clear he wasn’t interested in granting many pardons. “We were basically told that there weren’t going to be pardons—or if there were, there would be very few,” recalls one former White House lawyer who asked not to be identified talking about internal matters.

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Pardon My Outrage

by digby

I just heard a juror on Hardball say that Libby is a very nice guy who just got caught in a lie and it snowballed and that she hopes he gets a pardon, preferably soon. She agrees that the case was trivial and wishes she had been on a jury for the real crime.

Kate O'Beirne agrees, naturally. She is also sitting right next to the juror saying that Libby didn't lie and wasn't really guilty. The juror says nothing. How much do people want to bet that this woman is going to end up being the poster girl for the Free Scooter campaign?

I have to say that I think the conservatives are winning the spin war on this. By the time they are done, everyone in the country is going to believe that poor little Scooter was railroaded and that it's perfectly normal for a president to immediately pardon his aides when they are found guilty in a court of law. Hell, he can hire him back!

Republican administrations always break the law and when they are caught they always pardon their own. I guess we've just become so used to it now that people don't even find it shocking anymore.

If this happens, from this day forward, Republican administrations know they have no obligation to uphold the law while in office, ever. Why should they?

[texpatriot2004]

1. There's another problem too, if Scooter gets a pardon he can't

take the 5th and could have to give up the goods.

[ProSense]

3. That really doesn't work, just ask

Casper Weinberger.

[texpatriot2004]

11. I read a little bit, a very little bit about Casper but I don't get your

point. What happened after the pardon?

[ProSense]

12. After Bush pardoned the others

the case against Weinberger fell apart.

[waiting for hope]

2. I loved how Tweety (!?!)

shot down Kate O'Beirne on the term pardon, how it didn't absolve Libby from guilt and read to her the meaning.....


PARDON - A remission of punishment or penalty without indicating exoneration from guilt.


She totally didn't get it and was talking herself in circles.....Tweety was hammering her and gee, it was somewhat fun to watch for once.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. If Bush pardons Libby it will be seen as condoning lying and cheating

he wouldn't do that would he?

I think the big shots in the GOP would be worried about that? or the GOP will get another 'thumping' in 2008 and 2010. (that would be nice).

[mod mom]

5. I was livid after watching this. Of course O'Beirne's husband is profitting from

this administration. She commented on the Wilson's planned this out and are profitting nicely from it.

:mad:

[CTyankee]

10. If they are, it's because of what the Bush admin. did to them!

Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame were public servants. They did not seek any personal enrichment. Joe Wilson's book and the forthcoming film on their situation has obviously made them some money, but those things would never have happened if Bushco had left them alone. These are honest people who worked hard.

Kate O'Beirne and her fellow thugs are so jealous of them they can't see straight. Kate is ugly as sin and Valerie is beautiful. Male Rethugs can't stand it that Joe Wilson is a)handsome and very attractive to women, 2)very intelligent and articulate and 3)was a hero recognized by Poppy Bush during the Gulf War for standing up to Saddam Hussein.

P.S. I'm betting the movie deal was the last straw for the Rethugs! Wait til they have George Clooney playing Wilson or Fitz! If Al Gore at the Oscars made their heads explode, this movie will send them into heart failure!!:rofl:

[Lobster Martini]

6. There was another thread about this Newsweek column

Pardon me for repeating myself, but according to the guidelines on the DOJ Web site, Gerald Ford shouldn't have pardoned Nixon, and Bill Clinton shouldn't have pardoned Marc Rich, but obviously both happened. The language is sufficiently vague to give the President a lot of latitude.

[ProSense]

7. All the more reason why no one on the left

should be pushing pardon. It will not make Bush, Cheney and others in the administration look any more or less guilty than they already do.

[Sir Jeffrey]

8. Newsweek article...

You mean Bush would actually have to go outside the Justice Dept. guidelines to give a pardon???

:sarcasm:

Is Isikoff really that stupid? Since when has Bush ever followed the rules when the rules stood in the way of doing what he wanted?

If he wants to pardon Libby, he will do it whenever and however the hell he wants because he is "The Decider".

[ProSense]

9. Loyalty vs. Legacy

Loyalty vs. Legacy

The Bushies obviously prize loyalty — those who are loyal are rewarded handsomely — but above all they seem to prize self-preservation, or selfish reputation. Given Libby’s ties to Cheney, it seems quite unlikely that Bush would throw him under a bus, and he likely would rather have Cheney resign (citing health reasons as the excuse) than expose a rift at the top (the Bushies also prize secrecy and control), but a congressional investigation could force Bush’s hand and postpone a seemingly inevitable pardon — in which case the scapegoating of Libby would continue in earnest.

Anyway, here’s how Dickerson put it at Slate yesterday: “Libby is the highest-ranking White House official to be convicted of a felony since the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s. Will he get a pardon, as Caspar Weinberger did in that case? Who knows? If he gets a pardon, it will suggest the president is rewarding him for taking a fall for the White House and the vice president. If he doesn’t, it will suggest that President Bush, who said he was sad for the Libby family, isn’t sad enough.”

Or, if he doesn’t, that Bush only cares about himself.

All I can say is: Let there be more investigation. Do not let Libby’s guilt be the end of it. The cover-up was serious, but the crime was worse — and that’s where the focus needs to be.

Let's see if Congress plays along and skips the investigations, letting the Bush admin slide for a serious cover-up of a treasonous affair.

[MGKrebs]

13. Why would he not pardon him?

There is no downside for Bush*. He could care less what his enemies think, and the alternative is much worse. Libby facing even a couple of years in prison would be way too much risk.

Fitz is pretty much begging Congress to take the ball and run.

I don't think there are any restrictions on the President's pardoning power. Any guidelines are no more than suggestions.

We are talking about the guy who UNSIGNED the International Criminal Court Treaty.

[ProSense]

14. I didn't say he wouldn't, but

an investigation could deter him. My point was that the left shouldn't advocate pardon, claiming that it will bring the case closer to Bush.

[sandnsea]

15. Perfect opportunity for the Kerry haters

to show him and his campaign how you "fight back" at a pack of lies that the media is complicit in telling.

I agree with digby, the right is winning the spin war completely.