Scooter
by Scott Hardie on July 3, 2007
Headline: Bush Commutes Libby's Prison Sentence
Yeah, there are complicated legal and political factors involved, but to the average citizen (me) it reads like "President's friend gets out of jail free." Man, I gotta track down George's MySpace and add him as a friend.
Two Replies to Scooter
Kris Weberg | July 3, 2007
You've got it exactly backwards, Aaron: no charges will be filed because Libby lied. His lies prevented the court from deciding fairly whether or not there was an underlying crime.
The average citizen will never know whether a crime was committed because I. Lewis Libby acted deliberately to conceal the truth fot he matter from the court. To assume no wrongdoing occurred because "no charges were filed" is like assuming a murder didn't occur because the killer's buddy successfully incinerated the corpse and cleaned up the crime scene. "Sure, he was standing next to a furnace, covered in soot, and he has no alibi, but there's no body, so there must not have been a murder."
In the case of something like the Plame investigation, and of white-collar crime in general, there's no physical evidence. There's just testimony. And if someone's testimony doesn't add up, charges can't be filed because the contradictions in the testimony prevent it.
Ask yourself this, Aaron: if no one did anything wrong here, why did Libby bullshit the grand jury?
Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
Earth to Cat
What part of get down! are you pretending not to understand? Go »Redundancy
Can we add "information overload" to the list of phrases retired from the language due to clichéd overuse? It is apparently now used to describe anything remotely intense. Go »The Money Pit
Nobody's falling off of staircases or dropping bathtubs through the floor, but this month, our house has had a lot of things go wrong at once. It feels like every day brings another visit from a contractor. Here's our list so far: Mold remediation: A patch of black mold in the primary bathroom meant having the shower tiles stripped out and the infected drywall removed. Go »Unmitigated Gall
Life gets unpleasant quickly when your gallbladder stops working. TMI alert. I spent all day Friday with sharp pain in my abdomen, diagnosed as spasms from my gallbladder trying to expel a stone. Go »And If You're Not Careful, You Might Learn Something
Ten things I learned from watching the entire run of The Cosby Show over the last few months on Netflix streaming: - Cliff wasn't the only one who wore wild sweaters. - Seinfeld was celebrated as the "show about nothing," but this show had even less plot. Entire episodes just riffed for twenty minutes on Vanessa fretting over a test or Theo having a crush on a girl, nothing more. Go »
Aaron Shurtleff | July 3, 2007
Not to bring the complications in here, but I'd be more concerned if Libby were getting in trouble for something. I think until someone is charged for actually blowing Plame's cover, it's asinine to punish someone for being deceptive during the inquiry to find out if someone did something wrong. If no one blew Plame's cover (which, if charges aren't being filed, is what the average citizen who isn't anti-Bush should think, in my opinion), Libby should not be in jail, I don't think.
And a $250,000 fine for being deceptive (or forgetful, if you buy that story) isn't getting out of jail free in my book.