If you're the kind of political junkie who read a political blog you already know that Scooter has been refused permission to stay out of jail while he appeals his conviction. He is, of course, appealing this decision. He wouldn't go directly to jail, it is up to the US Bureau of Prisons to select a facility and set a date, possibly 6-8 weeks.
Now an interesting debate has emerged over at HuffPo on whether to Pardon, which I now cannot find. So I'll give you the essence, a poster connected high up in Obama's campaign (sorry I can't remember his name clearly enough to post it) proposed that a Pardon would be a good thing, placing the President in the position of having to take part in the mess and defend his Administration. Jane Hamsher posted that the law was broken and the Scoot needs to go to jail.
I am not in favor of Libby being pardoned, he deliberately lied under penalty of perjury, stupid and political. He may well have blocked a federal investigation of a serious matter, he certainly obstructed it. Now on the matter of "making" George II take some form of responsibility, this may be one of the most politically obtuse arguments I've seen from the left. If I'm wrong in fact you're free to call me names, here's how it plays out. Pardon? 'I'm The Decider, get over it. That's all I have to say, I have the power to do this.' Now, go ahead rough tough investigative reporter and ticked off Congress, what are you going to do about it?
It is scarcely going to hurt a 29% approval rating, that's the dead-enders. Let's say he loses 3% , the"'law and order' crowd," and that means what? He's not up for election and the ones trying to get to there are already running away from him as fast as possible, decorum be damned. Polls don't show a big concern on the part of most Americans.
Some folks are postulating that Scooter will roll over faced with actually going to jail. This guy isn't Paris, he's not 'skeered' to death and in need of house arrest to party. I don't know him and have no idea how tough he is, but for pete's sake, he's going to go to a country club prison, not an Alcatraz. How scary is that? It's boring, so he'll write a best seller and work out his corporate future, which will be bright. He has no incentive to roll, his future depends on it. The BushCo operation has nice high paying jobs for those it favors and nobody has anything for a tipped over Scooter. He is not a stupid individual and he knows the operation he worked for.
What we're really looking at is the issue of pardon or not means very little, politically. It may resonate with those who object to a system of justice that works completely differently for the wealthy and powerful compared to the rest of us; those folks already are 'in the camp' and it is scarcely news. BushCo will suffer no damage one way or the other, the Republican candidates will suffer no damage and the American public are already so screwed they won't notice.
Sure, some of will write something nasty about a pardon, and...
2 comments:
It makes no difference at all. The weak kneed Dimmos are so afraid of their own shadow that impeaching the president is off the table by all the front-runners. Where was it that I read the difference between repugs and dimmos was the repugs have no ethics and the dimmos have no guts. Sorry Chuck, but our experiment in democracy turned out to be joke.
Would be my guess that Bush won't make any waves until after the comprehensive amnesty bill fight is over. I think that there will be more pardons on his desk as George leaves office. My guess that there has been corruption with all the billions being trucked over to Iraq. Should be some more names on the pardon list.
Of course if anybody in this government still had the American people in mind we would be looking at a treason trial for failing to defend the borders and that little document we used to call a constitution.
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