The Libby commutation
I really don't have much to add except to say keep an eye on the coverage. As this thing was sprung as a surprise, the reporters are all now desperately writing anything they're told before deadline.
The White House will have incredible influence over how the president is characterized in tomorrow's papers.
So far, we've got a NYTimes headline telling me this decision was "a test of will," (not coincidentally the phrase attributed to Libby's "conservative believers" later in the analysis,) and the WaPo piece frames it as a decsion Bush made alone, portraying it as a piece of political wisdom carefully weighed on all sides.
The White House will have incredible influence over how the president is characterized in tomorrow's papers.
So far, we've got a NYTimes headline telling me this decision was "a test of will," (not coincidentally the phrase attributed to Libby's "conservative believers" later in the analysis,) and the WaPo piece frames it as a decsion Bush made alone, portraying it as a piece of political wisdom carefully weighed on all sides.
posted by mikevotes at
10:18 PM
11 Comments:
not just blatant cronyism then?
By
Anonymous, at 6:55 AM
With American troops on the ground and under fire in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration is playing fast and loose with dropping names of covert CIA agents -- agents directly involved with WMD intelligence. They stick their man Libby out to run interference, to lie, mislead, and obstruct the search for the truth.
I'm sorry. Spinning this as anything other than the actions of a Godfather is to abandon any expectation that traditional American values -- the real Family Jewels -- are part of the American Experience moving forward. We are no longer the country previous generations fought to build.
By
-epm, at 8:08 AM
Michael, the characterizations are starting to come in, and they are settling on the idea that Bush "spared" Libby. See next post.
EPM, you're not gonna be happy with what's coming out today. Bush is wise, judicious, and merciful according to much of the coverage.
By
mikevotes, at 8:12 AM
This is insane!
I'm tellin' ya (he said only half jokingly) if Steven Harper wasn't the PM of Canada, I'd be at the Canadian immigration offices today... no tomorrow, on the Fourth, just to make a point.
By
-epm, at 8:44 AM
My problem is that it's so goddamned cold.
By
mikevotes, at 9:09 AM
Canada, or George Bush & Co.?
:)
By
-epm, at 9:34 AM
I speak of the fine nation of Canada.
By
mikevotes, at 11:55 AM
We've seen how the Administration's disdain for the Geneva Conventions and Military standards led to brute squads and de facto torture rooms. I'm wondering if this "screw you" to the system of American justice will trickle down to create a new era of lawlessness... People will either rationalize that they are among the privileged above-the-law class, or simply say "screw it, there's no justice anyway so I'll take and do what I damn well please."
By
-epm, at 2:17 PM
That's been the case on White collar stuff for so long. Then there was the brief flurry of cases, Enron, Worldcom, etc, and now the restrictions are loosening again.
No coincidence that the initiation of white collar/corporate cases died just about the time Gonzales took over Doj.
By
mikevotes, at 2:30 PM
But I'm wondering if it will broaden. And I'm wondering if we'll see more non-white collar crime as as result of a deepening sense that the laws are really more a set of guidelines... suggestions really.
By
-epm, at 10:13 PM
I don't believe so, for no reason at all.
The brodaer loosening of federal guidelines and oversight have had far more of an effect in that direction than Libby will.
Probably as an example, the mainstreeting of bribery and corporate favors through things like K-Street project, Delay and Abramoff, and the placing of industry lobbyists in regulatory roles.
That has fudged the sense of responsibility far more than Libby will,
By
mikevotes, at 11:47 AM
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