Bush Refuses to Explain Clemency Order for Libby As House Panel Opens Probe

[babylonsister]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/07/bush_refuses_to_explain_libby.php

Bush refuses to explain Libby order

Bush Refuses to Explain Clemency Order for Libby As House Panel Opens Probe

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
AP News

Jul 11, 2007 18:29 EDT

President Bush refused to explain to Congress on Wednesday why he commuted the prison sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

The husband of the CIA agent outed in the case testified during a House hearing that the clemency grant had cast a pall of suspicion over the presidency.

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., Bush counsel Fred Fielding said Congress had no authority to review a presidential clemency decision.

"To allow such an inquiry would chill the complete and candid advice that President Bush, and future presidents, must be able to rely upon in discharging their constitutional responsibilities," he wrote.

The letter came in the middle of a politically charged hearing by the Judiciary panel on Bush's move last week to erase Libby's 2 1/2-year prison sentence. Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of obstructing justice in a federal probe of the leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity.

more...

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. No authority to review? I love it!!!

I can't wait to see the poor creature who tries to make that argument in court. I've seen more laughter directed at political figures in the past week than previously in my lifetime ... and I remember Nixon's downfall.

The Rove machine is collapsing inward. Only Comedy Central can do this justice.

[TahitiNut]

2. Funny how they use the law only when convenient.

They're outlaws.

[WinkyDink]

6. And Republicans hate trial lawyers---until they need them.

[cui bono]

7. Better than being in-laws

especially mine!

[BootinUp]

3. Its all they fuckin got! How many f'in times

are they goin to pull this lame ass defense out of the stale dead putrid rotting thing that is their Administration?

[aquart]

4. Until it hits the Supreme Court and Roberts okays it.

Then we'll have REALLY difficult decisions to make.

But I want Bush prosecuted for breathing the second his ass hits the pavement on January 20.

[C_U_L8R]

5. priviledge does not trump accountability

except in dictatorships ...and we know how they usually end.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

8. Compare the hearings REPUBLICANS held to lambaste Bill Clinton for his pardon

of Marc Rich. On March 1, 2001, there was the spectacle of Bob Barr asking WH attorney Beth Conlan about each of many phone call log entries in a thick book of exhibits. Clinton waived executive privilege completely so that Republicans had hundreds of leads they could pursue to nail Big Dawg.

But they failed utterly. Scooter Libby, who was Marc Rich's attorney until Cheney made him Chief of Staff, testified that in his opinion Rich was innocent of all the charges upon which he had been indicted! Beth Conlan tistified that a call from the Israeli Prime Minister and a green light from AAG Eric Holder were the keys to the last-minute pardon.

And Henry Waxman (D-CA) was a much more vigorous questioner of the witnesses than any Republican.

Compare those hearings to the circle-the-wagons coverup Republicans are carrying on in USAttorneygate and Treasongate.

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1298536&mesg_id=1300032 for CSPAN links to videos of the Clinton pardon hearings, rebroadcast early this morning.

[roody]

9. He had to commute the sentence because

Scooter would have had a heart attack the eve of his day to report to prison. Then he would have had to be cremated and spend eternity with Kenny boy.