President Bush commutes sentence for ex-Cheney Chief Of Staff
In a pretty surprising move, reports say that President Bush made a "b-line" towards the Oval office after meeting with Russian President Putin in Maine and emerged with an announcement that Scooter Libby's sentence would be commuted. This means he will serve no prison time. Libby's 250,000 dollar fine and loss of his law license will stand.
The commuting of Libby's sentence comes after 2 of 3 Republican appointed judges upheld the 30 month sentence imposed on Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice.
In his written statement, President Bush gave creedence to the side that says that Libby's crimes are serious and that his felony convictions, and the damage to his reputation that comes with those, will stand. Bush parted ways with those, including the judges who saw Libby's sentence as fair as the President called the prison sentence "excessive."
Supporters of Libby cheered the President's decision and heralded it as a victory while critics saw the founders vision of equal justice trampled on with this move. But that is to be expected. The fact is, that at the end of the day, it is what it is. President Bush had been sidestepping calls to pardon Libby, and now we can see why.
The President agreed with the courts essentially. But he "owed" his base, especially the neoconservative base that is almost alone in their continued support for his Iraq efforts, a big one. And this was it. He wasn't going to let their fellow neocon have to develop a grip of steel on the soap for 30 months. It was legal, it was something that no one will question the President's authority to do so, and it apparantly allows the President to maintain his vision of right and wrong.
And so this round is over.
But I suspect this will only embolden people like Patrick Leahy and Rahm Emanuel, and perhaps energize other Democrats in their investigations into the wiretapping programs, the Attorney General and the Justice Department and whatever else they are working on. Leahy mantioned the possibility of "contempt" charges being brought forth against the White House for refusing sopeanas issued by Congress recently. That possibility probably got a lot stronger with this "commuting" of Scooter Libby's sentence.