House Republicans defend Libby commutation

[babylonsister]

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-republicans-defend-libby-commutation-2007-07-11.html

House Republicans defend Libby commutation
By Susan Crabtree
July 11, 2007

More and more congressional Republicans may be teeing up to slam President Bush on Iraq, but the White House can still count on the House Judiciary Committee when the chips are down.

One after the other, House Republicans on the Judiciary panel, some of the most conservative members in Congress, spent the afternoon dismissing a Democratic hearing on Bush’s decision to commute the two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for former top White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby as a waste of time and just another misguided oversight investigation conducted for partisan reasons alone.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) pointed to the dozens of controversial pardons President Clinton issued on his last day in office, including those for numerous criminals convicted of cocaine trafficking, including his half-brother Roger and Carlos Vignali, who paid then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s brother $200,000 to represent him.

Republicans also cited Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich, a fugitive from justice who had fled to Switzerland after being indicted for tax evasions and illegal oil deals made with Iran during the hostage crisis. They brought up the ghosts of Susan McDougal and Whitewater, the pardons for 16 “terrorist” members of the FALN, a Puerto Rican nationalist group responsible for setting off 120 bombs in the U.S., and even their “dear former colleague,” as Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) put it, ex-Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the longtime Democrat from Illinois who was snared by the House bank scandal in the mid-’90s.

“As troubling as these pardons are, they were within President Clinton’s authority to grant, and neither I, this committee, nor Congress can limit their power,” Smith said.

more...

[jaysunb]

1. I wish someone would take the cuffs off Fitzgerald.

That's about the only thing that would shut these liars up...but then again--knowing how they operate--maybe not. :evilfrown:

[mmonk]

2. Of course the democrats could impeach Cheney

and end all the lying in this country. You wouldn't have to worry about these creeps.