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What a surprise! Libby Gets a PassBy Rick Horowitz Tell me again about the law-and-order stuff -- that's always good for a laugh. Tell me again about how people have to follow the rules, and how actions have consequences. How people are responsible for the choices they make, even the bad choices, and how, when they cross the line, they have to expect to pay the price. Hand me all that good conservative doctrine, but without that smirk on your face. Lewis Libby walks. Trot out those hoary clichs like "Equal justice under law" -- they're perfect for Fourth of July picnics, the same way toasted marshmallows are perfect for Fourth of July picnics: fun to wrap your tongue around, and totally empty calories. "All men are created equal" -- what a joke! Or were we out of the room when they added the second part: "All men are created equal -- the special privileges come later."
"I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive." Or so our president declared, bringing the same level of expertise to matters of crime and punishment he'd previously demonstrated in such diverse areas as hurricane relief, stem-cell research, global warming, and war. "Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison." So if a 30-month sentence for Lewis Libby was "excessive," what kind of sentence would have been more reasonable? 24 months? 20 months? 15? 10? 5? 3? 1? The answer is: No months. No days. No hours. To this president, it's clear, no prison sentence of any kind would have been reasonable for Lewis Libby. Lewis Libby -- charged with five felonies by a federal prosecutor, found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of four felonies by a jury, then sentenced to prison by a good conservative judge. Not good enough, apparently. Lewis Libby is one of Dick Cheney's people. People who are loyal to Dick Cheney don't do prison. And people who don't do prison stay loyal to Dick Cheney. (Convenient, isn't it?) Lewis Libby skates. The president let stand Libby's two years of probation, plus what he called "significant fines" For most people, $250,000 would be "significant fines." For Lewis Libby, who has powerful friends in high places -- and who kept his mouth shut about his powerful friends in high places -- $250,000 is pocket change. A few speeches to the red-meat types, the occasional consulting fee, a cushy little something at Halliburton... Lewis Libby will never be short of money. That's what friends are for. And what are laws for? Laws are for somebody else. Laws are for suckers. Laws are for radio ranters to rally around when the lawbreakers are young, or poor, or dark-skinned, or foreign-born. Laws are something else again to the highly placed and the well-connected, who can afford the best attorneys and the best p.r. flacks, and who know that, even if the attorneys and the p.r. flacks should somehow fall short, should somehow fail to sway a jury or a judge or even an appeals court, there's always somewhere else to turn. Always another string to pull. And if that string leads straight to the Oval Office, and to a president who famously pledged as a candidate to restore integrity to a scandal-plagued White House, so much the better, and hypocrisy be damned. Lewis Libby walks. So tell me again about the law-and-order stuff. Who says conservatives don't have a sense of humor? Posted 7/4/07. Get
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Rick Horowitz
