R.I.P., Rule of Law

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070702-3.html

Above you'll find the signing statement from President Bush in regards to his commuting of Scooter Libby's jail term. This represents not only a gross perversion of the Rule of Law as we know it, but also an open and bald-faced abuse of power that only demonstrates how little regard our President has for our own legal system and the intelligence of our citizenry.

Scooter Libby lied to a Federal Prosecutor investigating the very serious case of an information leak that compromised the identity of a covert agent in the C.I.A. Regardless of the fact that the Prosecutor did not find anyone had clearly broken a law, in the process of his investigation he found that Scooter Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, purposely and egregiously lied and attempted to obstruct the prosecution of justice in this investigation. This is a crime, and a very serious one.

People in our government need to know that they cannot lie, especially when they're under oath. Period. And President Bush's argument that "I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive" is ridiculous. Hundreds of people every year are convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice and are handed similar fines, but because Scooter Libby a good soldier for the neocon cause and Dick Cheney's hatchet man, he shouldn't have to serve time.

Ninja please! This only demonstrates the need for our elected officials to be subject to harsher penalties and fines because they are the ones charged with carrying out and upholding the Rule of Law itself. If this investigation was not valid in the first place, then why did Bush's own Justice Department refer this for criminal investigation? If government officials are caught lying under oath, they need to know they are going to be held responsible. If under oath, how many of these lifetime bureaucrats supposedly charged with running our government would tell the truth if they knew that the consequence was serving some time in a Federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison? My guess is all of them.

This goes across the board, Democrats of course should be held to the same standard. President Clinton granted some extremely shady pardons at the end of his term, although none of them were for people from his own administration who he decided to let free. Still, if he had been found guilty without a shadow of a doubt that he lied to the investigators from Kenneth Starr's office (no matter how bogus the investigation was in the first place), he should have been subject to the same consequences as anyone else.

Does nobody else see the ridiculousness of someone from your administration committing a crime and then pardoning them for it? It basically means that you can break laws as you see fit, and you won't have to deal with the consequences as long as you've got a sympathetic ear in the Oval Office. What complete and udder bullshit. I imagine this is how the Kremlin was run under Stalin, or how illegitimate iron-fisted Dictators in African countries trying to uphold the sham of "legitimacy" and "democracy" operate: let your own break the law, and then absolve them of their sins when they're caught. This cannot be how our Founding Fathers envisioned the Presidential powers of pardon to be used.

Prediction #1: President Bush grants a full pardon for Scooter Libby just before his term is up, if not well before.
Prediction #2: Scooter Libby gains employment from a large corporation which just happens to be a large Republican donor within the next couple of years. As for President Bush's statement in regards to this:

"My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting."

This too is a steaming pile of horse shit. Scooter Libby, even without the full pardon, will get a six-figure job somewhere else and live a happy, fat, rich life. Fuck him and fuck the rest of the people that have no respect for the laws they were elected to uphold. It's time to get someone else in office that will.