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White House: No Pardon for Libby »

Posted by: JamesMarcus 2 years, 9 months ago

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President Bush expressed sadness today over the conviction of I. Lewis Libby Jr., but the chief White House spokesman tried to douse speculation about a possible presidential pardon for the newly convicted official.

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JamesMarcus

James Marcus is a writer, translator, critic, and editor. He is the author of Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot-Com Juggernaut and ...

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Comments: 273

Avg rating: (+2/-0 2)
mumma-b
March 7, 2007, 7:40 p.m.
You can tell when Bush is lieing...
his lips are moving! though only just.
DF9S11Comment has been removed: User banned.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
ProudBlueTexan
March 8, 2007, 10:26 a.m.
bushco lies as a matter of course. That's how republicans operate; they reaffirm that continuously. He's not going to start demonstrating credulity this late in the game (and to bushco it's a game).
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
time4change
March 7, 2007, 6:06 p.m.
Bush is a confirmed liar....he wouldn't speak or know the truth if his life depended on it !!
Avg rating: (+16/-5 11)
texangelwings
March 7, 2007, 6:08 p.m.
He has two border patrol agents that needs to be pardon.
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AmpLee
March 7, 2007, 6:08 p.m.
I like the mention of Bush the Elder's pardon at the end of the article.
Like father like son?
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PatrioticAmerican
March 7, 2007, 8:31 p.m.
why do you still think Cheney is going down, i cant believe you guys still think Bush and Cheney will be impeached, It is LAUGHABLE to me that Impeachment is still being talked about. HAHAHAHAHA...
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
silverbear
March 7, 2007, 6:12 p.m.
KelLuv, you could have cut that comment short by just putting a question mark after the word Bush.....
Avg rating: (+21/-0 21)
most_reasonable
March 7, 2007, 6:14 p.m.
With the right Wing Wall Street Journal and NY Post pushing for his pardon, the Bush camp followers are already out there demanding a "special" kind of justice for his crimes...pardon.
There is so much "sympathy" for the "fall guy", but these same fakers refuse to acknowledge the crime itself.
Wilsons "crime" was to call into question the "slam dunk" of Iraq making weapons of mass destruction because of a "discovered" paper (which was such a travesty of fakery) that it was never shown to the public.
Wilson, an aid to President Bush the Father was sent to Africa to corroborate this fiction, but found that it was indeed not true, and the lie was maintained by the Whitehouse (so many no bid contrqacts to be awarded for political contributions, so little time).
Avg rating: (+2/-2 0)
most_reasonable
March 7, 2007, 6:22 p.m.
The sympathy for Libby is lost on me.
During the trial his defense attorneys claimed that he was only doing what the Whitehouse staff, orchestrated by Cheny and Rove TOLD him to do....poor Libby.
However, as part of their proposed trial strategy, they were going to call onto the stand both Libby and Cheney.
At the 11th Hour an aparent DEAL was struck, not to call Cheney as a defense witness (probably for a promise of a pardon).
Of course the right wing "faithful" claim that was a lie (in which case Libby should go to jail), but more likely it was and is a ploy.
Avg rating: (+4/-5 -1)
joemont
March 7, 2007, 6:25 p.m.
*
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somecommonsense
March 7, 2007, 6:33 p.m.
If the timing is right I would imagine a pardon will happen as it has with most presidents, now don't get me wrong I can't stand Bush but he won't be the first president to do last minute pardons as he walks out the door...Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton all gave out controvesial pardons in their last days. Anyway who cares Libby was the fall guy anyway, noone wants to talk about why this happened , why our president and his admin lied us into war and resorted to commiting felonines to cover up their lies and distortions.
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ningyo
March 7, 2007, 6:37 p.m.
bush shouldnt wait till his term is up--he should pardon libby now..just to stick it to reid , pelosi and fitznutso--this whole case was a travesty that never should have happened in the first place--its about the criminalization of political opinion and i wish the reps would grow a spine..and start looking into the lies of joe wilson--whose responsible more than anyone for most of this--put armitage and joe before a grand jury--thats where this case really should have ended up
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
most_reasonable
March 7, 2007, 6:41 p.m.
"bush shouldnt wait till his term is up--he should pardon libby now..just to stick it to reid , pelosi and fitznutso--t"
NOT TO MENTIONED THE AMERICAN PUBLIC AND AMERICAN JUSTICE.
Libby never said it wasn't a hatchet job on Wilson and his wife, he only said that he was following orders to hide the crime by Cheney.
Avg rating: (+5/-1 4)
Locky12
March 7, 2007, 6:44 p.m.
Can you imagine if Repubs demanded that Clinton not pardon Marc Rich!
Bush should pardon him just for spite. No other reason.
Avg rating: (+12/-0 12)
somecommonsense
March 7, 2007, 7:02 p.m.
they did, and he still gets ish for it...i could care less if he pardons Libby, par for the course.
Avg rating: (+1/-0 1)
ningyo
March 7, 2007, 7:12 p.m.
monkey biz--joe wilson went to niger so he could write a report refuting the administrations contention of sadamn trying to buy yellow cake..he published a pack of lies in the nyt as well as interviews saying among other things that he was sent by cheney..he was sent by plame--it was all a hatchet job by people in the state dept to undermine bush--so the admin put out their own version of joe wilsons story,,who sent him and why--in the course of all that--it was claimed that the admin "outed"plame..that she was covert..that cheney sent him--all untrue--wilson himself listed her in his who's who bio as a cia operative--he spewed her identity all over town--so fitzgerald is sent a grand jury to find out who outed plame--in the first weeks of the investigation he found out it was armitage who first sent her name to the press..that she wasnt covert..that there was no breach of cia crime--that should have ended it there-
Avg rating: (+27/-0 27)
walden3
March 7, 2007, 7:12 p.m.
if scooter starts offering to go state's evidence rather than get a long bid in a fed pen, then W will pardon him. W would have to cut the strings at that point.
Avg rating: (+1/-0 1)
ningyo
March 7, 2007, 7:13 p.m.
-but he kept going because plame wasn the real reason for all this--it was to discedit the administration---go fishing for process crimes--look for dirt--basically because they disagreed with their policies--and all they got was libby who in any other jury pool in the nation would have been aquited--i cant think of a more definate example of reasonable doubt than two people remembering things differetly about a conversion 3 years ago--but the judge wouldnt let them re-cross russert when he didnt remember things differntly than when he first testified to the fbi--the judge tied the defenses hands at every step--as fitgerald and the state dept appeasers knew he would--libby was essentially prosecuted and tried for disagreeing with powell schumer etc
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
most_reasonable
March 7, 2007, 7:15 p.m.
"monkey biz--joe wilson went to niger so he could write a report refuting the administrations contention of sadamn trying to buy yellow cake."
Still contending that there was a purchase of yellow cake?
Oh the "faithful" are so dense...even Dubiya has admitted that it was a farce.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
not2needy
March 7, 2007, 7:24 p.m.
Oh Please, Give me a break, this is Bush we're talking about here, he has more waffling power than IHOP!
Avg rating: (+2/-0 2)
joemont
March 7, 2007, 7:39 p.m.
Without dragging the Libby argument even further, it is probably going into the Appeal Process which can take God knows how long, but, where is our Justice Dept and exactly what are they doing on other issues?
1. Why have there not been any charges against Sandy Berger for his breaking of the law with CLASSIFIED documents? Is Justice just gonna give him a pass?
2. Why has Justice not taken a closer look at the Campeon (sp) and Ramos, Border Patrol Agents, situation?
Weird things indeed happening in Washington these days.
Go Jayhawks(3)
(:>)
Avg rating: (+2/-1 1)
joemont
March 7, 2007, 7:39 p.m.
Without dragging the Libby argument even further, it is probably going into the Appeal Process which can take God knows how long, but, where is our Justice Dept and exactly what are they doing on other issues?
1. Why have there not been any charges against Sandy Berger for his breaking of the law with CLASSIFIED documents? Is Justice just gonna give him a pass?
2. Why has Justice not taken a closer look at the Campeon (sp) and Ramos, Border Patrol Agents, situation?
Weird things indeed happening in Washington these days.
Go Jayhawks(3)
(:>)
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
NelsonR
March 7, 2007, 7:47 p.m.
If anyone on this site believes that Bush will not pardon Libby you are dillusional. He will follow many a corrupt past president in using this obnoxious tool to extracate a friend and criminal in need of that PARDON.
What prompted the drafters of our constitution to include this blight within its framework. Corruption breeds more corruption. Remember Clintons brother attempting to sell pardons. The constitution regarding this ludicrous Pardon should be amended. What the hell were they thinking upon inserting this unless they had a corrupt future agenda.
Politicians will never amend it since that would be like asking them to take a pay cut. Power is within our Representatives hands and you know they will not release any one part of that, POWER.
Now again, if I can have a person actually with a LOGICAL reason behind this, "Power of Pardon" I would like to know it other than those political reasonings?
It's graft and corruption at it's finest.
Avg rating: (+1/-0 1)
endofdays
March 7, 2007, 7:52 p.m.
I think it's funny how much traction this whole charade is getting. This case is going to appeals and stands a fairly good chance of being overturned, and while that lengthy process is being muddled through Libby will be free to live his life. And if he eventually loses the appeal and DOESN'T get the pardon that we all know he will, how much time do you seriously think he'll do? The charge carries 20yrs, but the federal sentencing guidelines in Scooter's case will leave him looking at 1 and a half to 3 years. He'll be out in about 14 months.
I think about the crimes committed in the last 20 years by the crooked politicians packing the capital on BOTH sides of the isle and I think this whole Scooter Libby shiit is a bunch of nonsense. As criminals go in Washington he doesn't even rate.