Top "Tunes:" Libby & the Untouchables & the Supreme Court Blues

By Diane Silver

As we stumble about through sweltering humidity and numerous non-blogging assignments, here are some of In This Moment's recent hits to ponder.

Scooter Libby and the Untouchable Administration

Bush is No Churchill

The Supreme Court Blues

Former Attorney General Botches Case & the Religious Right Cries

The Sorrow of Guantanamo Bay

Scooter Libby and the Untouchable Administration

By Diane Silver

What else can you call an administration headed by a president who thinks accountability and the laws of this nation are a joke?

George W. Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence in the Valerie Plame case is yet more proof that Bush does not believe that laws apply to him and his people. As the New York Times notes in an editorial.

Presidents have the power to grant clemency and pardons. But in this case, Mr. Bush did not sound like a leader making tough decisions about justice. He sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell.

Bush was elected screaming against the immorality of Bill Clinton, yet Bush doesn't hesitate a bit to step outside of his own Justice Department's procedure to keep someone out of jail. And please, don't scream about the fact that Bush didn't completely pardon Libby. Jail was the penalty that really hurt in this case.

It is, in fact, the split nature of Bush's decision that makes this a complete farce. If the judicial system failed so decisively in this case, then Libby should have been pardoned completely. If the system did not fail, then there is no rationale for a president to step in and override only part of a judge's sentence.

There appear to be two systems of justice in this nation. One for the president's friends and one for the rest of us. Heaven help those of us who fall down on the wrong side of that partition.

SurveyUSA's instant poll shows that I'm not the only person appalled by this. Sixty percent of those surveyed who were familiar with the case said the president should have left the prison sentence in place.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says(with my emphasis):

We comment only on the statement in which the President termed the sentence imposed by the judge as “excessive.” The sentence in this case was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country. In this case, an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws. It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals. That principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing.

We are all equals, except well, we aren't -- not with Bush in power.

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PHOTO: Who is that smiling man? Scooter himself.

Judge refuses to keep Scooter Libby out of prison despite "angry & mean-spirited" attacks

By Diane Silver

The news just keeps getting better and better today.

A judge has just refused to allow Scooter Libby to stay out of jail pending his appeal. No date has been set for Libby to report to prison, but it is expected to be within six to eight weeks.

It's nice to see justice -- and not influence -- being done.

Interestingly, the judge's decision today could well put our not-so-beloved president in a hard spot.

The Washington Post reports:

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton's decision will send Libby's attorneys rushing to an appeals court to block the sentence and could force President Bush to consider calls from Libby's supporters to pardon the former aide....

Walton never appeared to waiver from his opinion that a delay was unwarranted. After 12 prominent law professors filed documents supporting Libby's request, the judge waived it off as "not something I would expect from a first-year in law school."

He also said he received several "angry, harassing, mean-spirited" letters and phone calls following his sentencing but said they wouldn't factor into his decision.

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PHOTO: Judge Walton from his official bio.

Sunday Reads: Nasty gay unions, "don't ask" hypocrisy, Scooter myths, lesbian bed death

By Diane Silver

For your Sunday reading pleasure...

In Ocean Grove, New Jersey, the words for the day for decades-long lesbian and gay residents are: We want your business, we want your vitality, we want your money, but don't you DARE try to celebrate your unions in our town.

Yes, this town was founded as a Methodist camp, but it isn't run like one now. More than that, the "dastardly" couple -- life partners for 37 years -- merely want to use a public pavilion for their civil union. Has anyone ever explained the Golden Rule to these folks? I suspect Jesus would be appalled.

I often find Maureen Dowd at the New York Times to be irritating, but today she is talking sense about Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Republican candidates for president. Here are some of my favorite parts. (I'm quoting extensively because of the Times paywall.)

Be honest. Who would you rather share a foxhole with: a gay soldier or Mitt Romney?

A gay soldier, of course. In a dicey situation like that, you need someone steadfast who knows who he is and what he believes, even if he’s not allowed to say it out loud.

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue, as the gloriously gay Oscar Wilde said. And gays are the sacrifice that hypocritical Republican candidates offer to placate “values” voters — even though some candidates are not so finicky about morals regarding their own affairs and divorces....

Mr. Giuliani, who procured three deferments to avoid Vietnam, replied that, with the war in Iraq raging, “This is not the time to deal with disruptive issues like this.”

If he’s so concerned with disruptive issues, maybe he should start worrying about this one: Two straight guys who slithered out of going to Vietnam are devising a losing strategy in Iraq year after year. W. and Dick Cheney have fouled things up so badly that Robert Gates and Tony Snow are now pointing to South Korea — where American troops have stayed for over half a century — as a model.

Mitt Romney agreed with Rudy on the issue. Instead of going to Vietnam, Mr. Romney spent two and a half years doing Mormon missionary work in France. Isn’t that like doing Peace Corps work in Monte Carlo?

At the memorial for Mark Bingham, the gay 6-foot-5 rugby player who was on Flight 93 on 9/11, John McCain said he might owe his life to the young man who helped fight the hijackers, bringing down the plane aiming to crash into the Capitol.

But Senator McCain wants gay troops to stay closeted. The policy, he said, is “working.” But it’s not. The Army in Iraq is like that exhausted nag Scarlett O’Hara whipped on to Tara. Yet Republicans surge on, even as they expel gays....

The Republican field seems stale and out of sync. They should have listened to the inimitable Barry Goldwater, who told it true: You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reporter who covers federal courts debunks 5 myths about the Scooter Libby trial and the Valerie Plame case.

Finally, Mombian gets the award for the best headline of the week: "Lesbian Bed Death Saves Civilization."
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PHOTO: The beach at Ocean Grove, complete with cross and sea gull, courtesy of Wikipedia and a generous photographer.

Color Me Surprised: Scooter Libby gets prison

By Diane Silver

Well, well, well... I'm officially amazed. A federal judge has sentenced the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to more than two years in prison for lying about the Valerie Plame case.

Whether or not Libby ever goes to jail remains to be seen because an appeal is pending. Still, it's good to see some accountability imposed on the we-never-take-responsibility-for-anything administration. Of course, Libby still claims he didn't do anything wrong, but then, the standard "reward" for someone making a mistake in the Bush Administration is to give them a medal.

I shall refrain today from naming any other members of the administration I believe should be tried and booted into a cold, hard cell, but I bet you all can guess the names of said folks.

And so it goes...