Libby v. Rich
By Sean Aqui | Related entries in Bad Decisions, General Politics, Law, NewsThere’s a hue and a cry in certain parts of the polity over the Congressional interest in President Bush’s commutation of Lewis Libby’s jail sentence. The basic theme: Libby deserved a pardon, not just a commutation, and Bush’s action was clearly on the up-and-up. So Congress shouldn’t investigate the matter, and if they do Bush should claim executive privilege and tell them to sod off.
Oh, and there are the claims of hypocrisy, seeing as how Clinton’s rash of last-minute pardons barely raised any Democratic eyebrows.
That last charge has a ring of truth to it. Democrats often are loath to criticize a Democratic president, just as Republicans often are loath to criticize a Republican. They tend to express their opposition through lack of support, not active criticism. It’s why divided government is a generally a good thing: neither party can be trusted to police itself.
That said, Clinton’s pardons drew bipartisan criticism — particularly his pardon of Marc Rich, which hardly anybody defended. Likewise, even many Libby sympathizers think Bush was wrong to entirely eliminate his jail term.
Starting with that similarity, let’s compare the Libby case with the Rich case and see where we end up.
(Continued at Midtopia)
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