I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I believe that the Mainstream Media is completely missing the point on the “Scooter” Libby sentence commutation. The problem here isn’t a moral problem. There really is nothing immoral about a President commuting a sentence, but in this case, maybe. The problem that I see however is more legal than moral. The reason I say this is because you have a man that was a paid aide to the Vice-President, working for the executive branch, that is hiding the name of the individual or individuals that decided to leak the name of a CIA operative. Is this a conflict of interest problem or am I missing the boat?
Someone made a decision to leak Valerie Plame’s name to the press. If “Scooter” did it, then that’s treason, and he should be tried for a capital crime. Since he wasn’t tried for treason, then the court must have believed that someone else leaked the name or decided to leak the name. I’m pretty sure that it’s probably a person with more rank that “Scooter”, else that person would have been revealed. Who is higher on the food chain than Libby? If you follow my logic, it must have been either Libby’s boss Cheney, or Libby’s Boss’s Boss, Bush.
If it were either one of these people, than we have a real problem. We now have a definite conflict of interest. How can someone intervene in a case where they have a vested interest? That’s almost akin to the President dismissing impeachment proceedings using his “Executive Authority”. It’s just not right. Bush could have been the one that authorized the leak, or he could have condoned it. If that’s the case, and it just might be, how can he interfere? Just the appearance of a conflict of interest should have made him stay out of the fray. The very act of interfering draws people to make conclusions and I’m sure that they must have thought about it. The only reason I believe that Bush got involved, and therefore inviting speculation is because letting Libby face the prospect of seeing the same four walls for 30 months may have been too much for him to tolerate, and he would have then spilled the beans on who actually was behind Joe Wilson’s wife being exposed as a covert CIA Agent. That’s treason.
That a hell of a reason to get involved. It’s also a hell of a reason to look sideways at this thing. I smell something rotten here and I feel that it’s enough to warrant a good look into exactly what really happened. Bush isn’t ruling out a complete pardon. If I were the investigator, I’d try and get Libby’s case expunged if he’d turn States Evidence. If they don’t do it, I believe that Bush will. It’s that simple. Treason is a hell of a reason. If I were Bush, I would have done the same thing. But I’m not Bush, and I never would have gotten involved in this unseemly mess in the first place. Libby was wrong and there was no reason for Bush to get involved, unless there was a reason.
