I'm obviously a bit wound up by the Duhbya-commutes-Scooter news. For the record, commutations and pardons are within the complete discretion of the executive - he can dole them out as he sees fit (or not). That Duhbya has the legal right/power/authority to do this is not in doubt. For once.
My general grumpiness stems from thoughts similar to Orin Kerr's over at Volokh:
Nonetheless, I find Bush's action very troubling because of the obvious special treatment Libby received. President Bush has set a remarkable record in the last 6+ years for essentially never exercising his powers to commute sentences or pardon those in jail. His handful of pardons have been almost all symbolic gestures involving cases decades old, sometimes for people who are long dead. Come to think of it, I don't know if Bush has ever actually used his powers to get one single person out of jail even one day early. If there are such cases, they are certainly few and far between. So Libby's treatment was very special indeed.Bottom line - being a douche isn't a crime.
1 comment:
I'm not going to try to get you to change your mind on Bush, but come on. You can't compare the commuting of Libby to the pardong of Mark Rich by Clinton.
I doubt that Bush is any worse than any other President using his executive authority to commute or pardon.
And commuting a sentence isn't as bad. The pardon clears the person entirely, Libby is still convicted.
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