The presidential commutation of Lewis "Scooter" Libby's sentence isn't sitting well in some quarters. Quickie polls don't indicate widespread happiness and even the editorial page of The Washington Post, which has been trending rightward and defending Libby every possible way, wrote…
We agree that a pardon would have been inappropriate and that the prison sentence of 30 months was excessive. But reducing the sentence to no prison time at all, as Mr. Bush did — to probation and a large fine — is not defensible.
Meanwhile, The New York Times, which only occasionally lives up to its reputation as a Liberal newspaper, said (in part)…
Within minutes of the Libby announcement, the same Republican commentators who fulminated when Paris Hilton got a few days knocked off her time in a county lockup were parroting Mr. Bush's contention that a fine, probation and reputation damage were "harsh punishment" enough for Mr. Libby.
Presidents have the power to grant clemency and pardons. But in this case, Mr. Bush did not sound like a leader making tough decisions about justice. He sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell.
I think that's right…and would maybe add that Bush wanted to send a message to several members of his crew who are likely to face indictment, perhaps even for perjury raps: "Don't worry. I won't let them throw you behind bars."
But whatever outrage this has generated across America won't last long and won't have much impact. The folks who are mad at Bush have better reasons to be mad at the guy, and Congress isn't about to do anything. Yesterday, Joe Biden was urging people to call the White House and register their anger. That strikes me as about the most useless thing a body could do. To what end? Bush isn't going to rescind the commutation, and The Decider seems to pride himself in putting his judgment above that of public opinion. What might make a bit of difference is if the movable Republicans in Congress — which is to say, the ones facing tough re-election bids soon — were bombarded by voters. But I guess Biden didn't want to tie up his colleagues' phones.
Hey, on a more important aspect of this: How come most of the talking heads on my TV, talking about this, keep saying "Scooter Libby" over and over again? It's rarely "Libby" or "Mr. Libby," which are the common forms. It's like "Bush commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby because of the effect a jail term for Scooter Libby would have on the Scooter Libby family." I guess the guy has one of those names — like Charlie Brown or Stan Lee — that just lends itself to always being used in full. But if you didn't know better and watched cable news, you might get the idea his name was Lewis Scooterlibby. Come to think of it, I guess those of us who don't know better are the target audience for cable news.