For anyone that believed anything the President has ever said about dignity, honor, and honesty, his commuting of Libby’s sentence is an obvious and clear reminder that he is, fundamentally, an unaccountable, spoiled brat. He has never faced the consequences of any of his own actions, from cocaine to alcohol addiction to his failed businesses to what will surely end up recorded as his failed presidency.
He has no honor, no dignity and no respect for our country and for the laws that govern it. None.
This is a man who said repeatedly he would fire the person who leaked Plame’s name to the public. Hilzoy runs down some key public statements:
remember this?
“At one point, McClellan vowed: “The president has set high standards, the highest of standards, for people in his administration. He’s made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration.”
Bush replied “yes” when asked in June 2004 if he would fire anyone who leaked the agent’s name.”Why not go even further back, to this?
“During the year and a half that I covered George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, I must have heard his stump speech a thousand times. The lines changed little over the months, and the ending almost never changed — Bush would raise his hand, as if taking an oath, and promise to restore honor and dignity to the White House.
He also vowed to restore civility to the poisonous atmosphere of the nation’s capital, declaring at a GOP fundraiser in April 2000 that “it’s time to clean up the toxic environment in Washington, D.C.”A few months later, Bush told voters at a campaign event in Pittsburgh that his administration would “ask not only what is legal but what is right, not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves.”"
He is a liar and a hypocrite. I cannot see how anyone can look at what he did today and what he’s said in the past and reconcile them to any other conclusion.
I realize he hasn’t broken any law in this and it isn’t quite a complete pardon, but I am ready to take the next proverbial blowjob and bounce him and Cheney out of office. Impeachment would be the right outcome for both of them.
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:21 am
I would just like one minute to speak with the president. If al-Qaeda posted the name of a covert CIA agent on al-Jazeera and a raid produced a member of the cell who knew the source, but was harboring the guilty, what would you do? If this person was properly charged for obstruction and perjury for harboring the one that actually released the most sensitive information held by our government, and was given a sentence for 30 months, would this be too long? Would you just as easily commute a member of al-Qaeda who harbored a person who released the same information as you would another citizen? If you can say that you would commute a person like this, then fine.
But, I want to hear you say it to the nation. That no matter the person, no matter the crime, in no instance should a punishment like this be given for the crimes of obstruction or perjury. Then I would like to see, in an act of faith, the commutation of all those who may be serving time for these crimes. All the drug dealers who protect cartels. All the gang members who protect crime rings. All organized crime members protecting crime families. All terrorists harboring the terrorism of others. All of them must be set free. Set free with your blessing. Set free with your judgment, that these punishments do not fit the crime.
When you take the oath you promise to protect the nation from all enemies… foreign … and domestic.