IF THE SHRUB PARDONS LIBBY . . .

Just speculating, Brandon, just speculating. Of course that's true for both of us.

Anyone can engage in the wildest unsubstantiated speculations about anyone. This is what now passes on the left for intelligent criticism of Bush.

What am I gonna do? These are my instructions from the central committee. We must maintain discipline, lest our sinister, top-secret, far-left conspiracy be doomed.

Laughable

Of course, there's more then a particle of evidence. In fact, there's plenty of evidence that Libby has things to sing about. You just don't want to admit it or recognize it as such.

Cycloptichorn

I know, I know. Carry on, then.

Oh? How odd that you say that. What was it Libby was convicted of--hanging out with the wrong crowd?

Bad memory, I think.

Well, Bush had acknowledged Libby's guilt, declaring: "I respect the jury's verdict." And the verdict was that Libby was engaged in a cover-up.

That was undoubtedly it . . . plus, wearing badly cut, off the rack suits.

The Bush opposition is totally convinced that Cheney and Bush conspired to out Plame, and that Fitzgerald's ultimate end game was to get to Cheney. There is evidence for this, and I actually agree that Cheney and Bush were very ticked off at Wilson, and understood that Plame had something to do with Wilson's trip for supposed intelligence in Niger, so therefore they were toying with that knowledge, and were happy that the press had gotten wind of it.

The problem with Fitzgerald's preconceived template is the very troublesome thing in his path in the name of Richard Armitage, who was the first to out Ms. Plame. This essentially voids the whole investigation and supposed crime of Bush Cheney, but the bulldog that Fitzgerald is, he has refused to admit it. If he really cared about the outing, he would have gone after Armitage. Problem there is that for a crime to be committed, intent has to be shown, so the Armitage angle is also voided. Again, Fitzgerald refuses to admit defeat, being the dogged, relentless guy that he has the reputation to be, so he trudges on in his relentless project of getting somebody, and his template is Cheney / Bush.

To repeat my take on this for the umpteenth time, I believe the overlooked issue central to the root of this fiasco, is the utter failure and incompetence of the CIA. Wilson claimed to be the authority on Niger uranium, when in reality he had no qualifications to claim it, and he has no intelligence credentials whatsoever. Thus, the CIA is the organization charged with giving info. to the administation, and instead Wilson somehow becomes the spokesman for intelligence. Good grief, how ridiculous is that, and not only ridiculous, but a very bad strategy for the CIA on top of their own previous incompetence. The CIA should never have allowed Wilson to be involved. His conclusions of what he found are not consistent with other analysts, and so Plame Wilson appears to have been involved in undermining the administration, and I believe Bush / Cheney had every right to be ticked off about it. Although they were not the first to talk to reporters about Plame, and further it is unsubstantiated that they would have known what Plame's status was, so again, Fitzgeralds investigation is rendered null and void in regard to Cheney / Bush. He apparently is not smart enough to figure this out.

The summary of this is the fact that this is a totally political issue, and no crime has ever been substantiated. It was politics. Fitzgerald failed on all counts, went into a forest looking for a tree, got lost, and forgot why he was even there, so he chopped an innocent tree down, thinking the tree he was looking for was somewhere beyond the tree he chopped down, which was the hapless Scooter Libby.

The left must be growing

Links of articles at the source

I like this one best:


Chicago Tribune:

But in nixing the prison term, Bush sent a terrible message to citizens and to government officials who are expected to serve the public with integrity. The way for a president to discourage the breaking of federal laws is by letting fairly rendered consequences play out, however uncomfortably for everyone involved. [Link]

But the Bush message has always been clear: lies.

From CNN:



Bush welcomes probe of CIA leak
'I want to know the truth,' president tells reporters

WASHINGTON (CNN) --President Bush said Tuesday he welcomes a Justice Department investigation into who revealed the classified identity of a CIA operative.

"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.

* With a commutation and pardon.

"I welcome the investigation. I am absolutely confident the Justice Department will do a good job.

"I want to know the truth," the president continued. "Leaks of classified information are bad things."

He added that he did not know of "anybody in my administration who leaked classified information."

Bush said he has told his administration to cooperate fully with the investigation and asked anyone with knowledge of the case to come forward.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday the criminal investigation was launched Friday and the White House and CIA were asked to preserve all documents that might be relevant to the probe.

"The criminal division of the Department of Justice, with the assistance of the FBI as the lead investigative agency, opened a full investigation," Ashcroft said.

He said the prosecutors and agents conducting the probe are "career professionals with extensive experience in handling matters involving national security."

A department official said the decision to launch the probe was made by John Dion, a career attorney and head of the counterespionage section of the criminal division, not by a political appointee.

You guys keep forgetting a couple of things.

One being Bush is fully lawful in commuting the sentence. Bush is not ignoring any laws. He is acting within the law. Even a pardon for Libby would pale in comparison to the hundreds of criminals and terrorists that Clinton pardoned.

Secondly, in practical terms, this is a political case, not a criminal case, and a large number of people understand this, including by the way, most Republican presidential candidates. No underlying crime has ever been established, and politically informed people are smart enough to know this.

Also, remember the jury was chosen from a Democratic rich pool of people, and at least part of the jury sympathized with Libby as simply being an unfortunate minor player in this case, and did not prefer a harsh sentence.

You people here that want Libby hanged are preaching to your own choir. You only represent your own political spectrum, which is fairly extreme.

okie: You people here that want Libby hanged are preaching to your own choir.


Exaggerations isn't missed by anyone except okie and a few others on a2k.

and what they seem to fail to remember is that, underlying crime or not, libby lied to the f.b.i., the grand jury and a slew of others.

which is why he was charged with obstruction of justice and perjury.

that, not an underlying crime is what he was tried and convicted for.

this what those terms mean;



basically, libby got nailed for the same crimes as martha stewart.

This commutation also sets a bad precedence for future presidents. It's bad enough they're supposed to be the enforcer of laws, but when they override established laws to protect their cronies, that's a very dangerous practice for any government. Most pundits agree that Libby should have served "some" jail time. Bush is a moron; he can't do anything right.

With any luck, the consequences of Mr. Bush's action will also be political.