Many Newspapers Oppose Pardon

Alternately

As I noted in yesterday's column, What About the Rule of Law?, the National Review, the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and William Kristol of the Weekly Standard all demanded a presidential pardon yesterday.

So did the New York Post, which writes: "President Bush should end Libby's personal agony -- an agony he publicly professes to feel, and almost certainly does -- and not wait until he's about to leave office or until Libby prevails on appeal.

"Pardon Scooter Libby.

"Now."

The Orange County Register writes: "As one of the major behind-the-scenes architects -- from his position as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff -- of the lamentable war in Iraq, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has a great deal to answer for, whether in the depths of his conscience or in the annals of history. For the crimes of which he was convicted in March, however, it is outrageous that he has been sentenced to 30 months in jail and a fine of $250,000. . . .

"President Bush should pardon Scooter Libby immediately and end this politically motivated farce."

Yet to Be Heard From

The Washington Post.

On the Op-ed Pages

Federalist Society member William Otis writes in a Washington Post op-ed, suggesting a third way: "Scooter Libby should not be pardoned. But his punishment -- 30 months in prison, two years' probation and a $250,000 fine -- is excessive. President Bush should commute the sentence by eliminating the jail term while preserving the fine. . . .

"To pardon Scooter Libby would not be consistent with the imperative that the mechanisms of law be able to demand, and receive, the truth. But to leave the sentence undisturbed would be an injustice to a person who, though guilty in this instance, is not what most people would, or should, think of as a criminal."

Libby supporter Victoria Toensing writes in a USA Today op-ed: "Patrick Fitzgerald abused his prosecutorial powers when he indicted Scooter Libby for a faulty memory. The only remedy is a presidential pardon.

"From the day he took office as the unsupervised special counsel, Fitzgerald knew that Richard Armitage had first revealed to Robert Novak the fact that the spouse of administration critic Joe Wilson worked at the CIA. He also knew that Libby had never spoken to Novak about Valerie Plame.

"Any non-obsessed prosecutor would have closed the investigation at that moment."