When Presidential Pardons Turn Political

[maddezmom]

When Presidential Pardons Turn Political
By JIM RUTENBERG
WASHINGTON, June 6 — President Bush has pardoned 113 people during his presidency, including a Tennessee bootlegger and a Mississippi odometer cheat.

But none has drawn the public scrutiny, nor posed the same political challenge, as the candidate that many conservatives hope will be Bush presidential pardon No. 114: I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, who was convicted of lying to investigators in the C.I.A. leak case and sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison.

A pardon for Mr. Libby would attract more painful attention to a case from which Mr. Bush had managed to keep his distance for more than three years, a case inextricably linked to the flawed intelligence used to justify the Iraq war and an administration effort to discredit a critic that ultimately exposed a C.I.A. officer. The Democrats who control Congress would be none too pleased, either.

A decision not to pardon Mr. Libby would further alienate members of Mr. Bush’s traditional base of support in the conservative movement, a group already angry about his proposed immigration policy, his administration’s spending and his approach to Iran.

So far, Mr. Bush seems to be willing to take that chance, saying he will not intervene until Mr. Libby’s legal team has exhausted its avenues of appeal

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/us/07libby.html?ref=washington&pagewanted=print

[Redstone]

1. When have they ever NOT been political? The whole process is disgraceful.

Redstone

[truedelphi]

2. The word "disgusting" also applies to the neocon

Spin on this

Number one: no crime was even committed - Plame was never an undercover agent so there was no outing (regardless of how often the truth is explained, they always spin it back to that point)

So therefore why should Libby be punished?

Number two: even if the crime was committed, Plame's name was not leaked by Libby, or at least he was not the EARLIEST of the leakers, so why should he be the one being punished?