ThePoliticalCat: Politics - Pardoning Criminals

So Scooter Libby walks, eh? No jail time? Interestingly enough, no pardon (yet) either. What does that mean? Well, if Bush had pardoned Libby, Libby could no longer claim a Fifth Amendment protection against incriminating himself. Which means Congress would have hauled his ass in for further questioning in Plamegate, and he would have to testify under oath about his bosses' shenanigans. Right? By commuting his sentence, Bush makes sure that Scooter has incentive to keep his mouth shut while simultaneously allowing him the Fifth Amendment's protections. Neat trick? Smell like the fine (foul) hand of Cheney behind all this?

Larry Johnson diaries over at DailyKos how Plamegate has caused professional GrumpyOldFool David Broder to break out in a fit of stick-waving:

The drama opened, as these dark comedies are wont to do, with a strutting little peacock who went by the unimaginative name of Joe Wilson.

Mr. Wilson claimed that his wife had nothing to do with his trip to investigate Iraqi purchases in Niger, though that seems not to have been the case. He claimed his trip proved Iraq had made no such attempts, though his own report said nothing of the kind.

Broder is so out of date and out of touch, it's disgusting. He sounds like those guys who wear their pants right below their tits, held up by a white fake-leather belt, with nasty crepey folds of mottled skin around their reddened necks and upper arms, yelling about "damn furriners." I once had such a sterling character yell at myself and two friends as we sat on the lawn of the local law library. He waved a walking stick at us and called us unprintable names until I offered to introduce the stick to a part of his anatomy that has probably never seen the sunshine.

I am so furious about the whole thing. The number of people incarcerated for minor drug offenses has skyrocketed, and who do they hurt? Themselves, possibly, maybe another couple of family members or loved ones. Federal law permits the prosecution of terminally ill medical marijuana users, who hurt absolutely no one. Scooter Libby, erstwhile writer of bestial pornography, lies under oath, obstructs an investigation into criminal wrongdoing, and betrays his country by exposing the identity of a secret agent for his boss' personal gain only! - and saunters, scot-free, back to his $160K p.a. job at the Hudson Institute and his comfortable home with the expensive accoutrements.

So, Boy George, are you going to commute these sentences?