Jess - I'll go read yours in a bit, but I can't believe anyone is ok with this. I wrote about it too, in a blog titled "What a sad day in history". And I do think it was a sad day.
Misty and Rob--Somehow the nation was able to survive Jan 20, 2001. I'm sure we will survive this as well.
In case you may have forgotten an act of cowardice that occurred when there could be no political reprucussions let me remind you.
"In one of his last acts as president, Clinton grants 140 pardons"
-- Roger Clinton, who was convicted of drug-related charges in the 1980s. He was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty in 1985 to conspiring to distribute cocaine. He cooperated with authorities and testified against other drug defendants.
-- Susan McDougal, a former real estate business partner of the Clintons. She was sentenced in 1996 and released from prison in 1998. She was convicted of four felonies related to a fraudulent $300,000 federally backed loan that she and her husband, James McDougal, never repaid. One tenth of the loan amount was placed briefly in the name of Whitewater Development, the Arkansas real estate venture of the Clintons and the McDougals. Her attorney, Mark Geragos, said he remains hopeful that she would be pardoned, refusing to say whether he has received any indication from the White House that she would be pardoned. She was incarcerated for 21 months.
-- Henry Cisneros, who served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Clinton's first term in office. He was convicted of making false statements to FBI agents conducting a background investigation of him when he was nominated to the Cabinet post in 1993. They included misleading investigators about cash payments he made to a former mistress.
-- Former CIA Director John Deutch. The one-time spy chief and top Pentagon official was facing criminal charges in connection with his mishandling of national secrets on a home computer.
-- Former Navaho Nation chief Peter MacDonald. He has been in a Fort Worth, Texas, medical prison as part of a 14-year sentence for inciting a deadly riot. He was convicted of inciting in Window Riot, Arizona in 1989 after he was removed as Navaho chief amid charges of bribery. Two of his supporters were killed.
Being commuted IS different from being pardoned, but not much different (let alone MUCH different), although I don't have a big problem with it either. All presidents do it at some point and it never looks good. It is an interesting insight into a president’s thinking and priorities.
I think what people have a problem with here is the timing; it really makes Scooter look like the fall guy. Most presidents wait until the end of their terms but Bush did it now so that a good buddy wouldn’t spend ANY time in jail for breaking the law. This wasn't a family member, or somebody who had served some time, it was a guy who took the blame for Chaney and was promised no jail time and a sweet job to minimize any repercussions from his conviction.
I'm sure he'll be working for Halliburton in the near future
peter..you make my case that the outrage here is partisan.
joe...LOL. haven't we always known that scooter was the fall guy? i agree the timing is strange, and for the record, i want to point out that i don't LOVE this decision. i'm just ok with it. and let's not get into the different, but not by much. as miss is still as good as a mile. ask me about my golf game, i've got proof!
and my use of caps...is just as bad as my non-use. :)
Not a single pardon granted by Clinton that peter cited involved a case where there was the potential compromise of national intelligence work or the life of an agent of the U.S. government put at risk. We can go tit for tat here forever, but the commutation of Libby's sentence is beyond comparison.
-- Former CIA Director John Deutch. The one-time spy chief and top Pentagon official was facing criminal charges in connection with his mishandling of national secrets on a home computer.
10 comments:
When Cllinton pardoned it was a crime..GWB does it..well, it's just a favor between friend...Scotter has a new nickname..jail bird...he fly free
Whoops, pushed the wrong button! Did not mean to delete my last comment.
Shame on the "President" it is not as if he is even trying to pretend his administration is not corrupt and teeming with cronyism.
i am actually ok with scooter's sentence being commuted... i wrote about it over on "for the people."
check it out if you want.
http://kvnuforthepeople.com/?p=590
and anonymous...pardoned is MUCH different than commuted. you might want to google it up to see the difference...
Jess - I'll go read yours in a bit, but I can't believe anyone is ok with this. I wrote about it too, in a blog titled "What a sad day in history". And I do think it was a sad day.
Misty and Rob--Somehow the nation was able to survive Jan 20, 2001. I'm sure we will survive this as well.
In case you may have forgotten an act of cowardice that occurred when there could be no political reprucussions let me remind you.
"In one of his last acts as president, Clinton grants 140 pardons"
-- Roger Clinton, who was convicted of drug-related charges in the 1980s. He was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty in 1985 to conspiring to distribute cocaine. He cooperated with authorities and testified against other drug defendants.
-- Susan McDougal, a former real estate business partner of the Clintons. She was sentenced in 1996 and released from prison in 1998. She was convicted of four felonies related to a fraudulent $300,000 federally backed loan that she and her husband, James McDougal, never repaid. One tenth of the loan amount was placed briefly in the name of Whitewater Development, the Arkansas real estate venture of the Clintons and the McDougals. Her attorney, Mark Geragos, said he remains hopeful that she would be pardoned, refusing to say whether he has received any indication from the White House that she would be pardoned. She was incarcerated for 21 months.
-- Henry Cisneros, who served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Clinton's first term in office. He was convicted of making false statements to FBI agents conducting a background investigation of him when he was nominated to the Cabinet post in 1993. They included misleading investigators about cash payments he made to a former mistress.
-- Former CIA Director John Deutch. The one-time spy chief and top Pentagon official was facing criminal charges in connection with his mishandling of national secrets on a home computer.
-- Former Navaho Nation chief Peter MacDonald. He has been in a Fort Worth, Texas, medical prison as part of a 14-year sentence for inciting a deadly riot. He was convicted of inciting in Window Riot, Arizona in 1989 after he was removed as Navaho chief amid charges of bribery. Two of his supporters were killed.
jess,
Being commuted IS different from being pardoned, but not much different (let alone MUCH different), although I don't have a big problem with it either. All presidents do it at some point and it never looks good. It is an interesting insight into a president’s thinking and priorities.
I think what people have a problem with here is the timing; it really makes Scooter look like the fall guy. Most presidents wait until the end of their terms but Bush did it now so that a good buddy wouldn’t spend ANY time in jail for breaking the law. This wasn't a family member, or somebody who had served some time, it was a guy who took the blame for Chaney and was promised no jail time and a sweet job to minimize any repercussions from his conviction.
I'm sure he'll be working for Halliburton in the near future
peter..you make my case that the outrage here is partisan.
joe...LOL. haven't we always known that scooter was the fall guy? i agree the timing is strange, and for the record, i want to point out that i don't LOVE this decision. i'm just ok with it. and let's not get into the different, but not by much. as miss is still as good as a mile. ask me about my golf game, i've got proof!
and my use of caps...is just as bad as my non-use. :)
Not a single pardon granted by Clinton that peter cited involved a case where there was the potential compromise of national intelligence work or the life of an agent of the U.S. government put at risk. We can go tit for tat here forever, but the commutation of Libby's sentence is beyond comparison.
Kim--
You didn't read the list very carefully did you?
-- Former CIA Director John Deutch. The one-time spy chief and top Pentagon official was facing criminal charges in connection with his mishandling of national secrets on a home computer.
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