I think Josh has said it best
Jul. 3rd, 2007 07:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieOn the Scooter Libby commutation of sentence (emphasis mine):
"Many others will note this but I feel obliged to do so for the record. The real offense here is not so much or not simply that the president has spared Scooter Libby the punishment that anyone else would have gotten for this crime (for what it's worth, I actually find the commutation more outrageous than a full pardon). The deeper offense is that the president has used his pardon power to shortcircuit the investigation of a crime to which he himself was quite likely a party, and to which, his vice president, who controls him, certainly was.
The president's power to pardon is full and unchecked, one of the few such powers given the president in the constitution. Yet here the president has used it to further obstruct justice. In a sense, perhaps we should thank the president for bringing the matter full circle. Began with criminality, ends with it."
-- Josh Marshall
I really can't say it any better than that. Obstruction of justice is one of Twinkie's lesser crimes, but one that he is flagrantly and red-handedly guilty of. I wish I believed that the American public (and our elected representatives) had the political will to impeach him, or take whatever steps necessary to get him and his cronies out of our lives. He is, without question, the worst leader this country has had in my lifetime. He has done incalculable damage to our country, at home and abroad.
Worse, Libby's sentence commutation, and Rove getting his security clearance back (also happened yesterday) will get less news coverage COMBINED than Paris Hilton's jail stint. Not to mention the fact that Ms. Hilton just served more jail time for driving with a suspended license (or whatever it was) than Scooter Libby ever will for being convicted of obstruction of justice.
And America sleeps on.
"Many others will note this but I feel obliged to do so for the record. The real offense here is not so much or not simply that the president has spared Scooter Libby the punishment that anyone else would have gotten for this crime (for what it's worth, I actually find the commutation more outrageous than a full pardon). The deeper offense is that the president has used his pardon power to shortcircuit the investigation of a crime to which he himself was quite likely a party, and to which, his vice president, who controls him, certainly was.
The president's power to pardon is full and unchecked, one of the few such powers given the president in the constitution. Yet here the president has used it to further obstruct justice. In a sense, perhaps we should thank the president for bringing the matter full circle. Began with criminality, ends with it."
-- Josh Marshall
I really can't say it any better than that. Obstruction of justice is one of Twinkie's lesser crimes, but one that he is flagrantly and red-handedly guilty of. I wish I believed that the American public (and our elected representatives) had the political will to impeach him, or take whatever steps necessary to get him and his cronies out of our lives. He is, without question, the worst leader this country has had in my lifetime. He has done incalculable damage to our country, at home and abroad.
Worse, Libby's sentence commutation, and Rove getting his security clearance back (also happened yesterday) will get less news coverage COMBINED than Paris Hilton's jail stint. Not to mention the fact that Ms. Hilton just served more jail time for driving with a suspended license (or whatever it was) than Scooter Libby ever will for being convicted of obstruction of justice.
And America sleeps on.
