Commentary on Libby

A. Sullivan has a running thread on the matter here, for those interested. I'm not a huge fan of his on a number of issues, but I tend to agree with him on the questions of torture and the rule of law.

Of course elements on the farther left will over blow the proportions of all this, but overall I think justice is not served by the commutation. I think it is particularly hypocritical for the Republicans (those who do, not all) who cried foul and whined, sometimes like spoiled children and victims, that the prosecution was unfair, given the history with Prez Uncle Willy. I was against these kinds of investigations with Clinton and actually I was against this one as well. But Fitzgerald did do his job and Scotter Libby lied under oath. He defiled the sanctity of the Word of God and the Constitution of the US and gets off (minus the felony still on his record for now). This administration is unaccountable and sadly in my mind has degraded the rule of law. Just look at the basket case that is the Department of Justice. If Clinton had brought the Justice Department so low, you think Newt Gingrich wouldn't be on CableNews daily railing against him? Rightly?

For the record, I was also against Clinton's mass pardons at the end of his term.

I think the best thing would be to create some non-politicized and accountable system so we don't have these investigations for every administration from now on into the future. But pro-commutation conservatives do not have the high moral ground on this one, I'm sorry.

The point about no crime was committed in the Valerie Plame leak only proves the point further: if no crime was committed, why is Libby lying and obstructing justice? Of all people the conservatives should be the ones to remember there is no excuse to do such a thing. You expect, or I do anyway, this kind of victimhood from liberal Democrats, but from conservative Republicans?

The sentence exceeded the recommendation (15-21 months not the 30 he got), but then commute it to 15.

Of course conservatives (those who argue this) are right that this is more deeply about the question of the War. But I have to say I can't really feel too sorry for an administration that ran on a platform of not getting involved in state-building exercises, why all the while the President prior to Sept. 11th is telling people that he was going to invade Iraq, then they sold the war using the WMDs threat because as they have publicly admitted that was the best sell. Kinda tough to feel sorry for a group who does that and has this, overall small potatoes, boomerang back on them. Considering in the other decision, peoples lives have been lost/destroyed.

This is only going to light the fire even more in the subpoena issue. Why this administration has so continuously laid claim to executive privilege to everything and Cheney's unitary executive and his secrecy is beyond me. It no longer makes me angry, but so tragically sad. I worry in the future that the historians will look back on events like this as we do the debauchery and corruption near the end of the Roman Empire.