Remember the Republican outrage about Clinton's lying to the American people about an extra marital affair? Remember their slogan back in 2001? "The grownups are back in charge?" They shouted loudly about their supposed return to ethics and morality. And they claimed that they represented a return to a respect for laws.
But today, George W. Bush commuted the 30 month prison term for Scooter Libby. Libby was to serve the term after being convicted of exactly the crime that the Republicans accused Clinton of (he was never actually charged).
The Republican party has mutated into something that goes beyond partisan politics. They need to be stopped in 2008. Democrats and independents need to sweep them from power so decisively that even their most loyal spin doctors will be forced to acknowledge their failings.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Oh the hypocrisy
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 3:27 PM
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6 comments:
When the time comes to hold Cheney accountable for the crimes Libby tried to shield him from with his perjury, I hope the next President is not as merciful.
I believe Bush may have done the right thing for the wrong reasons. Might 2.5 years be too long of a sentence for a scapegoat? Is it fair to punish Libby extra because we can't punish Cheney or Rove? Of course, part of the reason we cannot punish Cheney or Rove is because Libby protected them with the very perjury and obstruction of justice of which he has been duly convicted. So it may be fair that he be punished more harshly. But I feel 2.5 years is too long anyhow. I tend to think most jail sentences are too long... because I'm a liberal.
And that, as RbR indicates, is the real hypocrisy here. As I mentioned on another post, everything is different when it's happening to you or someone you care about. "Zero tolerance" and locking-'em-up-and-throwing-away-the-key sounds like good red meat conservatism until it happens to you.
From Bush especially I fully expected this move: Bush has always placed personal loyalty and friendship above all other principles. In Bush's world, there are good guys and evildoers. In the fight against the evildoers, Bush believes good guys should be permitted to do whatever they need to do. Unfortunately, Bush makes the fundamental moral error of believing in good and bad people rather than good and bad actions. He also makes the fundamental moral error of assuming he must be one of the good guys. But he's hardly alone in this. In my view, those are the most widespread moral errors in the world.
So my point is: as a human being, I am glad that Libby is not going to spend 30 months in jail. But for Bush to pardon Libby is pure hypocrisy.
He still has to pay the $250,000 fine, of course. How long until some conservative blogs start raising money to pay that off?
This is obscene.
What is the usual prison term for obstruction of justice and purjury?
I heard the prosecutor Fitzgerald this morning say that Libby's sentence was very much in line with similar cases. He said that the president was within his authority to commute the sentence but he strongly objected to the president's characterization of the sentence as "excessive."
I also heard Tony Snow this morning. If you listen between the lines, Bush will pardon Libby as well as commute the sentence. If the conviction stands, Libby could lose his law license.
RBR, you said that "The Republican party has mutated into something that goes beyond partisan politics." I might characterize this act differently - this administration has shown again that it can be as political and hypocritical as any that preceded it. It certainly is guilty of just about all the accusations that Republicans levelled at the Clinton administration.
That is not a revelation. But this administration has hubris and a lust for unchecked power and authority that eclipses anything we have seen in our history. Much worse than Nixon.
Allow me to clarify. When I said that the Bush administration has gone beyond partisan politics, I meant exactly the lust for unchecked power that Dead Parrot mentioned. Where past administrations (with the notable exception of Nixon) sought to bend rules and perhaps even break them on the margins and in secret, this administration, and by implication the party that supports it so loyally, declares that it IS the law - period.
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