The Obstructer

Mister George W. Bush is now not only "The Decider," he is Obstructer-in Chief. Since Irving Lewis Libby was convicted of perjury, lying to Federal agents in order to obstruct justice, by commuting his sentence today, Mister Bush has proven that for the GOP to ever again call themselves the "Law & Order Party" is laughable on the face of it.

Per Steve Benen at Political Animal:

In conservative circles, there's a standard approach to law and order: we need tougher sentences, inflexible mandatory-minimums, and harsh punishment for those found to have broken U.S. law. But if you help expose the identity of a covert CIA agent during a war, lie about it, and are convicted by a jury on multiple felony counts, those standards no longer apply. Perhaps we should call this what it is: "amnesty."

Any Republican candidate who defends Mister Bush's actions is immediately disqualifiable for the Presidency, as they are essentially applauding a violation of the Constitutional Oath of Office. That means Rudy Giuliani for starters. The rest of the Republican field have so far been too cowardly to comment. But let it be known that for all their cable television bloviating, the rightwing is wrong to label it a left-only complaint:

Survey USA polled 825 Americans familiar with the Libby case immediately after the commutation was announced. Results are below (h/t TPM):

21% agree with President Bush's decision to commute Libby's prison sentence

17% say Bush should have pardoned Libby completely.

60% say Bush should have left the judge's prison sentence in place.

32% of Republicans agree with the President's decision, compared to 14% of Democrats and 20% of Independents.

26% of Republicans say Libby should have been pardoned completely, compared to 21% of Independents and 8% of Democrats.

Per Orin Kerr, it wasn't liberals who tried and convicted Libby:

As I understand it, Bush political appointee James Comey named Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Plame leak. Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Fitzgerald filed an indictment and went to trial before Bush political appointee Reggie Walton. A jury convicted Libby, and Bush political appointee Walton sentenced him. At sentencing, Bush political appointee Judge Walton described the evidence against Libby as "overwhelming" and concluded that a 30-month sentence was appropriate. And yet the claim, as I understand it, is that the Libby prosecution was the work of political enemies who were just trying to hurt the Bush Administration.

Look, any American with half a brain knows exactly what happened here. The rich are different. The powerful help each other escape responsibility for their actions, even if treasonous. And, in this case, the criminal enterprise of President Cheney and Acting Don Bush have saved their henchman, who will sure have others pay the $250,000 fine for him, who will get work immediately, who has been given a Monopoly-style "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

Echoing the law & order hypocrisy at hand, The New York Times entitled their editorial, "Soft on Crime":

Mr. Bush’s assertion that he respected the verdict but considered the sentence excessive only underscored the way this president is tough on crime when it’s committed by common folk. As governor of Texas, he was infamous for joking about the impending execution of Karla Faye Tucker, a killer who became a born-again Christian on death row. As president, he has repeatedly put himself and those on his team, especially Mr. Cheney, above the law.

Within minutes of the Libby announcement, the same Republican commentators who fulminated when Paris Hilton got a few days knocked off her time in a county lockup were parroting Mr. Bush’s contention that a fine, probation and reputation damage were “harsh punishment” enough for Mr. Libby.

Presidents have the power to grant clemency and pardons. But in this case, Mr. Bush did not sound like a leader making tough decisions about justice. He sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell.

In an outrageously vile insult to our once-great democracy, those bastards currently occupying the White House turned off the phone lines today just as the news was released.

Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) has quite rightly called upon the public to express our outrage by flooding the White House with phone calls starting Tuesday morning. For your convenience:

202-456-1111

Let's keep it up over the 4th, our Independence Day from tyranny.

If there ever was a time to storm the battlements, that time is now.