I do believe this commutation may well be the Saturday Night Massacre (if you count Lam, Iglesias, Charlton, Bogden, McKay, and Chiara as the Sunday through Friday Night Massacres, that is) of the Bush Administration. It's not so much the commutation that will be Bush's downfall, but the way in which he has deliberately avoided normal processes for such things. Via TPMM, in today's gaggle Tony Snow tried to use the "If Clinton did it the I can blow you" ruse. But one of the newly enspined press corpse noted that Bush's actions side-stepped precisely the measures put into place after Clinton's "flurry" of pardons to make sure pardons were not perceived to be an abuse of power.
QUOTE
SNOW: Well, this is ... no, this is not a wrong, but I think what is interesting is perhaps it was just because he was on his way out, but while there was a small flurry, there was not much investigation of it. Now you've got President Clinton and Senator Clinton out complaining about this, which, I got to tell you, I don't know what our Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it.
[snip]REPORTER: Tony, there were safeguards put into place after Clinton, and since you obviously feel there were abuses at the end of the Clinton administration ...
SNOW: I'm not just ... no, no, no. Look, the President has the constitutional authority and the constitutional power to practice clemency. So I don't ... all I'm saying is that this administration has been very careful about the way they approach it, and that would include in the case of Scooter Libby.
REPORTER: But because of perceived abuses by Clinton, there were changes made. Former pardon attorneys say there were a bunch of changes made to make sure it went through the proper channels.
SNOW: Right.
REPORTER: So then, since you feel so strongly ...
SNOW: So you're hung up ...
REPORTER: No, no, no. You feel so strongly that the Clinton pardons were abuses. You put that in your op-ed today; said there was a flurry of them. But ...
SNOW: I don't think I used the term "abuses." I think I had said that there was a flurry of them.
REPORTER: "Dizzying haste," you said.
SNOW: I believe that would be an accurate portrayal. If you take a look at news reports ... people scurrying about, clutching pieces of paper, running around ... I think those final hours were probably not timed of long chin-pulling reflection. But again ... look, Ed has got a reasonable point, which is to ask, do we think we've done wrong, do we think we've cut corners? The answer is, no.
[snip]REPORTER: Tony, there were safeguards put into place after Clinton, and since you obviously feel there were abuses at the end of the Clinton administration ...
SNOW: I'm not just ... no, no, no. Look, the President has the constitutional authority and the constitutional power to practice clemency. So I don't ... all I'm saying is that this administration has been very careful about the way they approach it, and that would include in the case of Scooter Libby.
REPORTER: But because of perceived abuses by Clinton, there were changes made. Former pardon attorneys say there were a bunch of changes made to make sure it went through the proper channels.
SNOW: Right.
REPORTER: So then, since you feel so strongly ...
SNOW: So you're hung up ...
REPORTER: No, no, no. You feel so strongly that the Clinton pardons were abuses. You put that in your op-ed today; said there was a flurry of them. But ...
SNOW: I don't think I used the term "abuses." I think I had said that there was a flurry of them.
REPORTER: "Dizzying haste," you said.
SNOW: I believe that would be an accurate portrayal. If you take a look at news reports ... people scurrying about, clutching pieces of paper, running around ... I think those final hours were probably not timed of long chin-pulling reflection. But again ... look, Ed has got a reasonable point, which is to ask, do we think we've done wrong, do we think we've cut corners? The answer is, no.
It's not just Snow's double standard--that this was an abuse by Clinton but not by Bush. More importantly, after the perceived "abuse" of the pardon power by Clinton, safeguards were put in place to make sure processes would prevent the abuse of power. You know--things like running a commutation by the pardon attorneys at DOJ. Or asking the prosecutor about a commutation before you grant one. Or actually waiting until the felon in question has served a day in jail.
When it comes right down to it, though, Snow believes the "dizzying haste" is a sign of abuse (only he won't use the word abuse, because it is dangerous)--"people scurrying about, clutching pieces of paper, running around." Which is why, finally, Bush decision, just hours after the Appeals Court refused Libby bond, is going to cause him problems.