Scooter Libby, convicted of a federal felony for perjury and obstruction of justice, receives a “Get out of Jail Free” card from George W. and will serve no jail time.
Chaplain (CPT) James Yee, convicted of no crime, spent 76 days in solitary confinement for merely doing his duty as a chaplain before all charges were dropped.
Update: Johnny on another contrast. Sherman Cox II.
What a difference the Bush administration has made to the Republican Party. The party’s reputation for fiscal responsibility is shot. It’s reputation for foreign-policy acumen is gone. And now, it’s the soft-on-crime party — provided, of course, that the criminal is a Bush crony.
This commutation is a sign that Bush just doesn’t care anymore. He’s got nothing left. …
Think about it: Paris Hilton did more time in the slammer than Scooter Libby. What a legacy George W. Bush has left us…
Andrew Sullivan links to Orin Kerr at Volokh:
As I understand it, Bush political appointee James Comey named Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Plame leak. Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Fitzgerald filed an indictment and went to trial before Bush political appointee Reggie Walton. A jury convicted Libby, and Bush political appointee Walton sentenced him. At sentencing, Bush political appointee Judge Walton described the evidence against Libby as “overwhelming” and concluded that a 30-month sentence was appropriate. And yet the claim, as I understand it, is that the Libby prosecution was the work of political enemies who were just trying to hurt the Bush Administration.
I find this claim bizarre. I’m open to arguments that parts of the case against Libby were unfair. But for the case to have been purely political, doesn’t that require the involvement of someone who was not a Bush political appointee?
Sullivan concludes:
What more do we need to know? These people think they are above the law. This president thinks he is above the law. The vice-president believes he is above the law.
Pax et bonum 