White House loyalists have begun arguing that clemency for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby — either a pardon or a commuted sentence — would be a way for an embattled President Bush to reassert himself, particularly among conservatives.
The White House has not ruled out a pardon for Libby, sources say. But several Republicans, who sense a movement in Libby’s favor, said a more likely possibility might be a presidential commutation — a reduction or elimination of Libby’s 2½-year federal prison sentence. Such a move, they said, would be less divisive for the country.
A well-connected Republican whose views have reached Bush’s inner circle said that if Libby goes to prison, “It would be seen by the religious and policy conservatives as the president abandoning his loyalty virtue for the hedonistic pleasure of political expediency.”
In an effort to get their messages to the top echelons of the White House, Libby’s friends cooperated with recent articles by Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times and John Dickerson of Slate, whose piece bore the subhead: “No way Scooter Libby is going to prison.”National Review Online ran a “Pardon Libby” editorial the day of the verdict. The Wall Street Journal ran a “Free Scooter Libby” editorial earlier this month. And the Middle Eastern scholar Fouad Ajami has argued: “He can’t be left behind as a casualty of a war our country had once proudly claimed as its own.”
Lost respect for Bush?
On the website of The Weekly Standard, editor William Kristol asked in advocating a pardon: “Many of us used to respect President Bush. Can one respect him still?”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has differed with Libby over the years, told The Wall Street Journal editorial board when asked whether he should go to jail: “[T]he legal system has spoken, but I tell you, this is a really good guy who is a good public servant and ought to be treated in accordance with that.”
One insider, though, cautioned that her comment does not indicate a Libby pardon. “If Bush was thinking of doing it," the insider said, “he would not want anyone to be giving any clue.”
You know, Libby could be the most fantastic guy EVAR, but that doesn’t give him the right to break that law. And that is the point of him going to jail. He broke the law. Now all those “good Americans” that follow the word of the Lord (in their eyes) should know that even the bible doesn’t condone breaking the law. It doesn’t condone lying either. So…where does that leave Libby? It should leave him in jail for about 2 1/2 years.