Punishing Prevaricating Politicians & Parsing Partisan Perspectives
By mw | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Law, Partisan HacksNot a pardon, but a sentence commuted. For convicted felon Scooter Libby there will be no time served, but he will continue to carry the burden of a guilty verdict (assuming no subsequent pardon). The decision was granted not at the end of the President’s term, but now. Truth be told, I take no satisfaction in the President’s decision, nor am I gnashing my teeth. Last March, when the Libby verdict was read, DWSUWF offered this “Partisan Hypocrite Test” in the post “Looking Glass Liars” which I updated and excerpted here when the sentence was pronounced:
“The Test. One question. It is multiple choice.
Which of the following choices do you believe? Chose only one:
- It was right for both Clinton to be impeached and Libby to be prosecuted for lies under oath, even though there was no underlying crime.
- It was wrong for both Clinton to be impeached and Libby to be prosecuted for lies under oath, since there was no underlying crime.
- It was right for Clinton to be impeached but wrong for Libby to be prosecuted for lies under oath, even though there was no underlying crime.
- It was wrong for Clinton to be impeached but right for Libby to be prosecuted for lies under oath, even though there was no underlying crime.
If you answered “1″ or “2″ – Congratulations! You are not a partisan hypocrite.
If you answered “3″ or “4″ – there is no point in continuing to read this blog. You should go listen to podcasts of Anne Coulter or Bill Maher. Enjoy.
Full Disclosure: DWSUWF agreed with both prosecutors, both prosecutions, and chose “1″. I don’t care which political party they are in. If a high-ranking official lies under oath, you take that official to the wall. No one is above the law. No one has the option of lying under oath without paying the consequences.
An identical rationale was used for impeaching Bill Clinton and prosecuting Scooter Libby. Clinton lied under oath during an investigation. He was impeached for lying under oath in an investigation into a blowjob. Libby was tried and convicted for lying under oath in an investigation about the leak of the identity of a CIA operative. It is completely irrelevant if the underlying reason for the lie under oath was a crime or not a crime.”
Now the other shoe has dropped. George Bush commuted Libby’s sentence. His felony conviction remains on the record, his fine, and and consequent likely disbarment remains in force, but he will do no time. Not my preferred outcome, but by the standards of the Partisan Hypocrite Test, reasonable. In a comment to the excerpt here at Donklephant, Jimmy the Dhimmi asked the right question: “Do you think Clinton should have been found guilty of perjury… and put in jail for 10 months? “
Bill Clinton lied under oath. As a consequence he suffered the humiliation of being impeached and tried in the Senate. He narrowly avoided being the first President in history to be removed from office as a result of an impeachment. Although he was disbarred and precluded from practicing law, he did not face a criminal trial and potential incarceration. His partisan supporters have largely absolved him of all guilt, his reputation is intact in their eyes, and he has profited handsomely since leaving office.
Scooter Libby lied under oath. As a consequence he was tried and convicted of a felony and forced out of office. Although his sentence was commuted, his felony conviction stands and he is likely to be disbarred and precluded from practicing law. He has extensive legal bills and was fined $250,000 but is unlikely to suffer financially. His partisan supporters have largely absolved him of all guilt, his reputation is intact in their eyes, and they will continue to support him. Quite probably, his loyalty in politically protecting the uber-rich Cheney will not be forgotten.
I would have preferred to see Libby do some time, but fully expected to see him pardoned before Bush left office. On balance, I am not going to cry out in lamentations or rend my garments over this outcome. In my mind, in both cases, the extenuating consideration is motivation. I ascribe an understandable motivation to both Clinton and Libby. Clinton lied to protect his reputation, his marriage, and his family from a perceived partisan witch-hunt. Libby lied to protect Dick Cheney (and probably others in the administration) out of a misplaced sense of loyalty and misguided sense of patriotism from a perceived partisan witch-hunt. He is not a bad guy. Neither is Clinton. Both suffered consequences from their actions, but jail time was not required for the integrity of legal system to be preserved.
Now Dick Cheney is another matter altogether …
x-posted from Divided We Stand United We Fall.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 and is filed under Bad Decisions, Law, Partisan Hacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Either great minds think alike, or you are ripping me off!
I’m just joking. But it is scary similar, don’t ya think?
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Yeah. Weird. I’ll go with the former (GMTA), even though I can claim the chronological high ground, as my original post pre-dates yours, and was posted from an internet cafe in Mexico. The internet cafe has nothing to do with it of course. I just thought it was cool.
I think Karl Jung calls it synchroniicy, or ‘meaningful coincidence’. There were a couple more synchronistic elements in our posts Similarity in our internet handles (mw and imw) and some very similar thinking about the moderate middle. I note your reference to the non-existence of a ‘moderate manifiesto’ as I have an unfinished and unposted screed I titled the ‘Dividist Manifesto’ (stay tuned). Perhaps we are exactly the same person. Are you sure you are not my sock puppet?
Anyway, you hit on exactly the right point about the nature of the moderate middle, which is that it really does not exist in any meaningful way. When you peel off the rabid partisans on the right and left, then peel off the mildly partisan on the right and left, then peel of the partisan-leaning who vote from their partisan comfort zone no matter what they say about being independent, what you are left with is about 10% or less of the electorate.
That is why these fantasies of a ‘moderate’ 3rd party with a plurality of votes will never happen.
I’d like to invite you to become the second member of the Dividist Party (although you may want to wait for the manifesto). No leaders, no platform, no convention, no contributions, no candidates. With an evenly split partisan supermajority, we just need about 5-8% of the electorate to vote consciously and consistently for divided federal government to control the political dialog and maintain better “moderate” governance.
July 3rd, 2007 at 6:35 pm
“I’ll go with the former (GMTA), even though I can claim the chronological high ground, as my original post pre-dates yours”
You gotta look more closely at the date on my post. Yes it was May 7th. But it was May 7th, *2005*.
If the Dividist Party will accept deliberate obstructionism and argumentativeness as a qualified good, I’m on board.
July 3rd, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Hmmm. Ok. You got me. I’m the sock puppet. Although I think the date is suspicious as everyone knows the internet was not invented until 2006 when I started my blog.
Deliberate obstructionism and argumentativeness are actually pre-requisite necessary but not sufficient qualities for membership. You also must have the constitution and inclination to actively provoke and antagonize partisans of either stripe as needed. This in order to help maintain the delicate polarized partisan balance where our 8% can actually control the outcome of the vote.
July 3rd, 2007 at 8:54 pm
[...] Mr Libby was not pardoned today (recently?), his sentence was commuted. There have been comparisons between Mr Clinton’s perjury and Mr Libby’s perjury. So, I’ve some questions to which I don’t know the answer. [...]
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Love the title, MW. In fact I hereby declare you the winner of the Crapomatic Institute’s 2007 Award for Astounding Alliteration.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Thank you Dyre. I’d like to thank my editor, my agent, my spellcheck 2000, Roget, Webster, Mrs. Bobera (my 7th grade english teacher), Jesus, Allah, Xenu, and of course all the member of the Crapomatic Academy. “You like me! You really like me!”
July 4th, 2007 at 1:58 am
I find it interesting that so many people tend to justify or dismiss the actions of our president simply because it’s “expected” or “not shocking” or supposedly an “inevitable course of occurence.” Along with this, people tend to try to make a case for this clear and utter act of corruption by using Bill Clinton’s corruption to somehow justify Bushes’ corruption.
I will be the first one to tell you that Clinton is just as much a “backroom” jostler as Bush is. But excuse me people! I hate to bring a some fact to your attention. Bush is our president now, not mr. smarmy Clinton. I don’t give a good G’dam’ what Clinton (did way back when. I do However, care that the president of our country is the most corrupt, slimy, war mongering man to lead this country. Not a day goes by that things don’t get more “exciting?”
or maybe the correct word in this istance should be more “F’ked up.”
What I would really like to know, and again, let me make it entirely clear, I don’t give a rats azz about why Ford decided to commute Nixon, I want to know why, when a man, regardless of his connections to the highest echelons of this government is convicted in the highest court in the land get a free pass. Tell me?
would mr. blue collar, work your azz off! blow joe, I’m struggling to make ends meat, I’ve paid my most egregious debt to society speeding tickets) religiously patriotic, flies a f’ken flag everyday of the week American, WHY? WHY? wouldn’t he get his “sentence” commuted. Huh? tell, me, that! Cause I would really like to know.
Justice ceases to matter when justice doesn’t apply to the “friends” of the venal, corrupt mr. Tammany seating his lil’ azz in the oval office.
July 4th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Oh, the alliteration!
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