by emptywheel
Digby's all over Tim Noah's latest idiocy.
QUOTE
Clinton was impeached and he faced the music. He was tried and acquitted according to the rules of the constitution. Bush, on the other hand, just used his plenary power to commute a sentence to cover his own bad deeds and keep one of his own aides from having to pay the price for his crimes. He has used his power for this one man when he has been the stingiest president in history for pardons and commutations.
There's just two things I'd add. First, Noah, like everyone else who supports Bush's commutation, is ignorant of basic facts in the case, and basic facts of law. First, as Team USA demonstrated, the Probation Officer ignored mandatory enhancements when it recommended 15 months to Libby. Once Walton put in the mandatory enhancements, 30 months was in fact the minimum in the range. So Libby, in fact, was sentenced to the minimum recommended sentence for his range. Second, it is not "routine" for someone to get bond pending appeal. Again, as Team Libby demonstrated, Congress has made it clear that the "routine" should be that a convicted felon go straight to prison. Ignorance, Tim, is not a sound basis for a winning argument.
More importantly, though, Noah pretends--as all shameless pundits do--that Libby was convicted solely of lying. "Just like Clinton," Noah wants you to believe. And if Clinton gets away with it, so should Libby.
Nuh uh, Tim. Clinton was hiding two things: a blowjob between consenting adults, and a soggy cigar. Embarrassing, surely. But not a full-fledged investigation into the actions that resulted in the exposure of a CIA NOC. The reason Libby got his 30 month sentence was not, as Noah would have you believe, because Libby lied about Dick. Libby got his 30 month sentence because he prevented us from learning about Dick's role in outing Valerie Wilson. You know: the really dangerous Dick, the one who would out a CIA spy as ugly retaliation for exposing his lies.