New W.H. Counsel Robert F. Bauer, HuffPo, 6/13/07: "The Progressive Case for a Libby Pardon"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

The Progressive Case for a Libby Pardon

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-bauer/the-progressive-case-for-_b_51983.html

Until a very short while ago, few had heard of Scooter Libby. Today, still not a celebrity with the larger public, he carries on his shoulders the full weight of charges against the administration in the Wilson/Plame matter. Convicted of lying, he is not really reviled for that. It is his hand in a plot that he has been asked to answer for: a plot against war critics who have taken the administration to task for the mishandling, mismanagement and misrepresentation of war intelligence. But Libby, the only one in the law's grasp, is the only one to pay the price.

Bush's opposition has braced for a pardon and its rage at the prospect is building. To Bush's antagonists on left, a pardon would be only another act in the conspiracy -- a further cover-up, a way of getting away with it. But this is the entirely wrong way of seeing things. A pardon is just what Bush's opponents should want.

A pardon brings the president into the heart of the case. It compels him to do what he has so far managed to avoid: accept in some way responsibility for the conduct of his Administration in communicating with the public about national security and in its treatment of dissent. If the pardon would be politically explosive, then this is what the administration's critics, hungering for accountability, have been waiting for. The case against this government on the larger charge of abuse of power is diminished, made even laughable, by resolving into a 30-month sentence for an obscure figure named Libby.

From the beginning, the president has had his reasons for encouraging the Wilson/Plame case along, keeping a lofty distance, until it all came crashing down on Libby. Mr. Bush announced that he would tolerate no law-breaking; he wished nothing less than a full and independent investigation. His Deputy Attorney General selected a tough and independent prosecutor for the mission. Whatever wrongdoing occurred, however much of it was detected, it could have nothing to do with him. If there was criminal conduct, it was rogue criminal conduct; if it was a benefit to his administration, it was not a benefit he courted, and it was not provided in a manner he authorized.

[grasswire]

1. sigh.......

I'm sick now. Are you freaking kidding me???

The Bushes and the Bushies must be rejoicing.

On edit: We're doomed.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. Why? He's not arguing that Libby is innocent. He is arguing that by pardoning Libby Bush gets his

fingerprints all over that case instead of pretending his corrupt administration had nothing to do with it.

"But if the President pardons Libby, and by this act makes the case his own, he will have picked up a portion of the cost. Libby will fall back, restored to obscurity. Bush will step forward and take the lead role. He will have to explain himself; he will have to answer questions.

For Libby, the pardon does not come without cost; for in accepting the pardon, he effectively accepts rather than continues to contest his guilt. "A pardon", one court has stated, "proceeds not upon the theory of innocence, but implies guilt." And if Libby does not serve time, 30 months exacted from the Fall Guy, how much should anyone really care? Libby is not going to flip; he is not going to rat out Dick Cheney. He will just be the Fall Guy, the minor actor in a play that, if Bush never takes the stage with a pardon, closes soon to disappointing reviews."

[grasswire]

6. has that happened?? no.

I rest my case.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

7. No, but Libby wasn't pardoned.

He was commuted.

I still think he's wrong, but I hardly think that his views are pro-Bush.

[grasswire]

8. the PROBLEM....

...is in his assessment of Bush and Bush's criminal conspiracies.

"Whatever wrongdoing occurred, however much of it was detected, it could have nothing to do with him. If there was criminal conduct, it was rogue criminal conduct; if it was a benefit to his administration, it was not a benefit he courted, and it was not provided in a manner he authorized."

That just makes me ill.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

9. He's not saying that that's the way it *is*, he's saying that that is the way it was meant to appear

to the media etc. He's saying that this narrative is the narrative Bush wished to push when he took a hands off approach to the Libby situation.

[bluestateguy]

3. Obama gains nothing and loses everything from a pardon

A pardon would enrage the progressives of the Democratic Party and the Cheneyite neo-cons would show no gratitude, no appreciation at all, and continue pissing and moaning about his policies.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

4. He's not arguing that Obama pardon Libby. He's arguing that if Bush pardoned Scooter Libby,

Bush would finally be getting involved in that case. He would no longer be floating above it.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. By the way, I think he was wrong.

Bush didn't have to answer shit after commuting Libby. But he's not arguing that Libby should be pardoned because he's innocent or that Obama should pardon Libby.