There’s lots of local reaction to President Bush’s decision to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence. Greeensboro’s Steven Taub writes:
So President Bush just commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence because it was “too harsh.” I’m trying to imagine what the fallout would have been if an active CIA agent had been outed during the Clinton administration, particularly if that outing had blatantly political overtones. The difference in reaction would have been huge.
….while Ann Sullivan of Liberty says:
I am appalled that the president has commuted the sentence of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. He is sending the message that if you have friends in high places, then the law does not apply to you. This undermines the credibility of our criminal justice system that promotes a standard of equal justice for all.
I am looking forward to the next national election where I will vote for a party that has a higher standard of integrity.In my opinion, our president has lost his moral direction.
You have to wonder which party Ms. Sullivan is talking about. Then there’s ConAlt, who posts Michael Goodwin’s piece on Hillary Clinton’s selective outrage over pardons. Here’s the important part:
But Bill Clinton never gave Denise Rich her money back. The former wife of disgraced financier Marc Rich gave $450,000 to Clinton’s presidential library and raised and contributed more than $1 million to campaigns of the Clintons and other Democrats. Her husband, who had fled the country rather than fight charges of massive tax fraud and trading with Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis, suddenly received a pardon. “Utterly false,” Bill Clinton later said about charges he sold the pardon. “There was absolutely no quid pro quo.”
Among those he cited who supported the pardon was Scooter Libby, a lawyer for Marc Rich.
Yes, a bit of irony there. But the bottom line is Clinton pardoned a fugitive from justice, totally bypassing the legal system. For Clinton to criticize the ethics of Bush’s actions is insane.
If anyone out there is thinking about turning our country over to his wife, I respectfully ask that you think twice.
