More News That Bush Wants 2 B A Totalitarian
The_Non
5,691 Posts
WASHINGTON - President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term on Monday, issuing an order that commutes his sentence. This is a breaking news update. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.WASHINGTON (AP) ??? Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby cannot delay his 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case, a federal appeals panel unanimously ruled Monday.The decision is a major setback for Libby, who is running out of legal options and who probably will have to surrender to prison in weeks. The ruling puts pressure on President Bush, who has been sidestepping calls by Libby's allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.Libby was convicted in March of lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. He is the highest-ranking White House official ordered to prison since the Iran-Contra affair.Libby believed he had a good chance of overturning the conviction on appeal and asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to put the sentence on hold. In a two-sentence ruling, the court refused.The White House had no immediate reaction to the decision.Libby's supporters, who raised millions of dollars for his defense fund, immediately renewed calls for a pardon."I hope it puts pressure on the president. He's a man of pronounced loyalties and he should have loyalty to Scooter Libby," said former Ambassador Richard Carlson, a member of Libby's defense fund. "It would be a travesty for him to go off to prison. The president will take some heat for it. So what? He takes heat for everything."Attorney William Jeffress said only that Libby's defense team was weighing its options.Those options are dwindling, however. The most likely move is an appeal to Chief Justice John Roberts, but it's unlikely that Roberts would overturn a unanimous ruling to spare Libby prison. Barring such an intervention, it seems only Bush could spare Libby prison time.Roberts is a Bush appointee but judicial politics haven't helped Libby so far. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who sentenced Libby and refused to delay the prison term, was a Bush appointee. Two of the three appellate judges who denied Libby's request Monday were appointed by Republicans.Last week, the U.S. bureau of Prisons designated Libby as federal inmate No. 28301-016. He soon will receive a time and place to surrender. The agency tries to place inmates close to home, which means candidates include prisons in Cumberland, Md.; Petersburg, Va.; Fairton, N.J.; Fort Dix, N.J. and Schuylkill, Pa.As a first-time offender, Libby likely would be assigned to a minimum-security prison camp, where inmates sleep in bunks arranged in small cubicles with shared toilets. Whether drug dealers, insider traders, tax cheats or disgraced politicians, all prisoners are ordered to strip and submit to cavity searches on their way through the doors.Bush and Cheney have said throughout the case that they felt sorry for Libby's wife and children. But Bush has publicly dodged questions about whether he plans to pardon Libby or commute his sentence.The leak investigation was a political cloud over the Bush administration for years. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald interviewed Bush and Cheney and ordered key White House aides to testify before a grand jury.Nobody was charged with leaking Plame's identity but Libby was convicted of lying about his conversations with reporters regarding the outed operative. Fitzgerald says his investigation is complete.The appellate judges who turned down Libby's request were: David Tatel, nominated by President Clinton; David Sentelle, selected by President Ronald Reagan; and Karen LeCraft Henderson, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, father of the current president.
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The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States [/b], except in Cases of Impeachment.
Paris Hilton did more time than Scooter Libby ever will.
He should've done it if he wanted when he leaves office, not now. I know the law, traditional pardons come when he leaves office. He is a dick, this is an oligarchical dick move, and you know it Shabadoo.
at least he's not out there selling them like Hugh Rodham.
If you want this to be a country where the rich can get anything they want, regardless of legality, similar to Brazil, by all means, we are well on our way to being there. The American middle class is being eroded to a point where Americans will be a bunch of service class desk jockeys serving the 1-5% of the population that has money. If that is your vision of America, we've nearly achieved that.
Couldnt you find an older scandal to drag up?
Your not even going to try and argue that this was morally right huh, just that it was technically legal? Smart move...
we're there. some wonk on tv said the other day that "the most liberal senator and the most conservative senator have more in common than either of them has with the average voter" and thats just about as true as it gets.
This was not a reprieve nor a pardon, but a commutation, which makes the conviction stand but allows Libby to skate on the jail time. Also totally within Bush's legit power.
I say, bring on the obvious crony moves (this is not the first, and far from the last) that will grease the wheels for the further deterioration of the Republican Party in the next elections. It may be Bush's right, but that doesn't mean that most people don't see it for what it obviously is, cronyism and the powerful, connected dudes getting away with breaking the law and being traitors to national security.
Bush will probably pardon him completely upon his leaving office, just so he won't have to hear the press corps bitching about it for the next 2 years. But I am willing to bet that he will be fully pardoned by W.
i dont have to argue, im happy with the outcome and its done. whats to argue.
Seems like the same kinda move. Libby scratched Bushes back by obstructing justice so that Cheney and Bush could not be indicted. Rodham scratched Clinton's back by donating some money.
Your argument that Bush is corrupt but it's ok because Clinton was too is sad.
Come to think of it you are sad.
If you think Bush is still doing good things domestically, in foreign affairs, trade, dismantling our judiciary and civil services, then you really are a sad and a sick puppy.
It scares me that someone so cynical, so corrupt and so totally lacking morals may someday be a lawyer.
she already is.
dude aren't you the least bit embarassed to mindlessly parrot GOP talking points? I mean, hating on Hillary Clinton? a little cliche isn't it? I swear you've become a parody of yourself.
your just mad cause im stylin on you.
WTF does it matter when he does it? Why the hell is this power in the Constitution anyway? Regardless of what side of the aisle the president is on so to speak, it seems like all it does is encourage corruption.
Seriously.
Sabadabadoo can at least take heart in the fact that he may soon be able to reach deep into his closet and recycle some dusty "Impeach Clinton and her husband" cracks.
everything eventually comes back into style.
Well above you seemed to be taking a shot at so-called elitist politicians. Was that ok only because it included democrats? If you dont like these elites scratching each others backs at the expense of the public, how do you square your support for Bush's action on Libby's behalf?
I suspect you prefer to just provoke liberals because you know it would be impossible to support your positions with logical arguments. This is why you will not address my questions, or those raised by others in this thread.
I merely recognize how things are, which is a good starting point if we want to limit ourselves to reality.
I support my argument with the Constitution. Personally, I think the entire Plame "leak" was a joke. I also think that Bush has been made responsible for everything from floods to global warming, probably doesnt care about how this "might look."
if it was a gigantic explosion, you wouldnt have to stop to listen would you?
LA LA LA LA LA . ... I cant hear you.
i personally was not the least bit surprised of W's decision, although i am somewhat surprised that it came so fast....shouldn't he be drinking vodka today instead of pardoning GOP fall guys?
Goodnight!
And people wonder why the left can't keep focus!
Anyways, Bush commuting Libby's sentence is on some, "hey, my approval ratings are abysmal already, the senate republicans wouldn't go for my immigration plan. Fuck me? Naw dudes, FUCK YOU. I'm doing whatever I want."
And I second the idea that when Bush jumps, he's pardoning Libby all the way.
If people thought the partisan battles were ugly before, it's going to be a rollercoaster of fun from here to 2008 now.