Obstruction of Justice, Continued

"This anti-Washington, anti-establishment feeling, because of this instance of special treatment, is likely to become much more powerful."

John Harwood told Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News: "This is not going to be popular with the American public as a whole but Republicans are happy tonight, and I'll tell you, so is Dick Cheney."

Opinion Watch

Here is MSNBC's Keith Olbermann announcing the winner of last night's "worst person in the world" contest: "[B]y unanimous decision, the 43rd president of the United States, who has tonight commuted the sentence of one of the key members of his own administration, who has done it gutlessly, by press release, who has buried it on the Monday of the longest Fourth of July weekend possible, and who has, in so doing, forfeited his claim to being president of anything larger than a small, privileged, elitist, undemocratic, anti-constitutional cabal.

"As Oliver Cromwell said to the infamous Rump Parliament in England more than 350 years ago: 'You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you.' In the name of God, go. . . . As you may have suspected, tomorrow night, here on Countdown, a 'Special Comment' calling on this vice president and this president to resign. Tomorrow night on Countdown."

Josh Marshall blogs: "The real offense here is not so much or not simply that the president has spared Scooter Libby the punishment that anyone else would have gotten for this crime (for what it's worth, I actually find the commutation more outrageous than a full pardon). The deeper offense is that the president has used his pardon power to shortcircuit the investigation of a crime to which he himself was quite likely a party, and to which, his vice president, who controls him, certainly was.

"The president's power to pardon is full and unchecked, one of the few such powers given the president in the constitution. Yet here the president has used it to further obstruct justice. In a sense, perhaps we should thank the president for bringing the matter full circle. Began with criminality, ends with it."

Marcy Wheeler blogs for the Guardian: "[T]he real effect of Bush's actions is to prevent Libby from revealing the truth about Bush's -- and vice president Cheney's -- own actions in the leak. By commuting Libby's sentence, Bush protected himself and his vice president from potential criminal exposure for their actions in the CIA Leak. As such, Libby's commutation is nothing short of another obstruction of justice."

Joe Wilson on NPR: "Congress ought to conduct an investigation of whether or not the president himself is a participant in the obstruction of justice."

Libby trial book coauthor Jeff Lomonaco, in an op-ed he tried unsuccessfully to get published several weeks ago, predicted a commutation because "it would enable Bush and Cheney to continue the strategy they have successfully pursued in deterring journalists seeking their explanations with claims that they shouldn't comment on an ongoing legal proceeding. If Bush were to pardon Libby, he and Cheney would no longer have such a rationale for evading the press' questions - nor would Libby be able to claim the right against self-incrimination to resist testifying before Congress about the role that Cheney and Bush played in directing his conduct."

Joan Walsh blogs for Salon: "I was immediately reminded of a juvenile dirty joke about dogs: Why did Bush commute Libby's sentence? Because he can. He can't do much else: He can't win the war in Iraq, let alone the war on terror. He can't stop his approval ratings from continuing to decline. He can't pass immigration reform. He can't stop Dick Cheney from destroying his presidency, and the world. But he's got the power to do this, with a final kick at U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and Valerie Plame. Is anyone really shocked?"

David Corn blogs for the Nation: "It's appropriate.

"The president who led the nation into a disastrous war in Iraq by peddling false statements and misrepresentations has come to the rescue of a White House aide convicted of lying by commuting his sentence. . . .

"The fine will be no problem for Libby. His neoconservative friends and admirers will kick in to cover that tab. (Perhaps even Cheney will send a check.)"

David Brooks starts off his New York Times opinion column (subscription required) by mocking Joe Wilson for having an unimaginative name then writes that Bush's decision "was exactly right. . . .

"Of course, the howlers howl. That is their assigned posture in this drama. They entered howling, they will leave howling and the only thing you can count on is their anger has been cynically manufactured from start to finish.

"The farce is over. It has no significance. Nobody but Libby's family will remember it in a few weeks time. Everyone else will have moved on to other fiascos, other poses, fresher manias."

Timothy Noah writes for Slate: "What Bush did was just and fair. It was the right thing to do." His explanation? "Two words: Bill Clinton. No fair-minded person can deny that the previous president committed perjury about Monica Lewinsky while serving in the Oval Office. The country knew it, and it let him get away with it."

Blogger Digby responds: "The country backed Bill Clinton because it was obvious that he was being pursued by a shrieking band of harpies over an inconsequential, sexual indiscretion, which anyone in his right mind would have lied about in that perjury trap of a deposition for that pathetic set-up lawsuit. The reason Clinton was supported by most Americans was because most of them understood exactly what had happened and they didn't think he merited the punishment of being forced from office. . . .

"Clinton was impeached and he faced the music. He was tried and acquitted according to the rules of the constitution. Bush, on the other hand, just used his plenary power to commute a sentence to cover his own bad deeds and keep one of his own aides from having to pay the price for his crimes. . . .

"And apparently, as predicted, that's just fine with a good portion of the DC establishment. The oh-so-jaded political observers like Tim Noah see this whole thing as some sort of partisan game of tag. . . .

"From their perches atop the commentariat they smugly dismiss the concerns of average Americans who are enraged that these people keep cheating and getting away with things that ordinary citizens and even powerful Democrats could never dream of getting away with -- they relentlessly smear their opponents with the filthiest lies, they stage partisan impeachments, they steal elections, they illegally start wars and make up novel authoritarian theories of governance -- and then they use their powers to excuse their minions from the consequences of these actions if they happen to get sloppy and get caught. None of them ever pay. Ever."

Glenn Greenwald blogs for Salon: "That Dick Cheney's top aide, one of the most well-connected neonconservatives in the world, is protected from the consequences of his felonies ought to be anything but surprising. That is the country that we have. It is a result that is completely consistent with the 'values' that define official Washington. No other outcome was possible. . . .

"The President and his followers know that they can apply completely different rules to themselves, and freely break the law, because our Washington establishment, our 'political press,' will never object too strenuously, or even at all. Over the last six years, our media has directed their hostility only towards those who investigate or attempt to hold accountable the most powerful members of our political system -- hence their attacks on the GOP prosecutor investigating the Bush administration's crimes, their anger towards the very few investigative reporters trying to uncover Washington's secrets, and their righteous condemnation towards each of the handful of attempts by Congress to exercise investigative oversight of the administration.

"The political press -- the function of which was envisioned by the Founders to investigate and hold accountable the most politically powerful -- now fulfill the exact oppose purpose in our country. They are slavishly protective of our highest political officials, and adversarial only to those who investigate, oppose and seek to hold those officials accountable."

Glenn Reynolds blogs: "My prediction: Bush will rise in the polls as estranged conservatives warm to him in light of lefty indignation."

Democratic Reaction Watch

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada: "Libby's conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq War. Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California: "The President said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak case. By his action today, the President shows his word is not to be believed."

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware: "I call for all Americans to flood the White House with phone calls tomorrow expressing their outrage over this blatant disregard for the rule of law."

More reaction compiled by the Associated Press and washingtonpost.com's Paul Kane.

Editorial Watch

The New York Times: "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."

The Washington Post, which had been editorially silent on the Libby issue since his sentencing, today notes an op-ed by William Otis that proposed commutation as an option on June 7. But The Post argues that Bush went too far: "We agree that a pardon would have been inappropriate and that the prison sentence of 30 months was excessive. But reducing the sentence to no prison time at all, as Mr. Bush did -- to probation and a large fine -- is not defensible."

The Chicago Tribune: "[I]n nixing the prison term, Bush sent a terrible message to citizens and to government officials who are expected to serve the public with integrity. The way for a president to discourage the breaking of federal laws is by letting fairly rendered consequences play out, however uncomfortably for everyone involved. The message to a Scooter Libby ought to be the same as it is for other convicts: You do the crime, you do the time."

The San Francisco Chronicle: "The special prosecutor observed that Libby's evasiveness cast 'a cloud' over the vice president.

"One juror called Libby 'the fall guy' for his boss and White House political guru Karl Rove.

"The cloud remains.

"The fall guy just received a far softer landing than he deserved."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "President Bush's commutation of a pal's prison sentence counts as a most shocking act of disrespect for the U.S. justice system. It's the latest sign of the huge repairs to American concepts of the rule of law that await the next president. . . .

"The commutation illustrates a profoundly dispiriting and unshakable aspect of the administration. The president and Vice President Dick Cheney see themselves and their cohorts as above traditional concepts of legal and constitutional constraints on their conduct in office."

The Rocky Mountain News: "If Libby isn't going to prison for lying to a grand jury, then it's hard to see why anyone should.

"As the president himself said Monday, 'our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable. They say that had Mr. Libby only told the truth, he would have never been indicted in the first place.'

"They not only say it, Mr. President, it happens to be true."

The Denver Post: "President Bush's decision Monday to commute the sentence of I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby is another disheartening example of the administration's appetite for trampling upon decisions made by other branches of government."

The Arizona Republic: "Fairness and the rule of law are core American values. Elected officials don't jump into the middle of the process and play favorites.

"Or so we thought."

The San Jose Mercury News: "Whether it's ignoring climate change to boost oil profits or feeding no-bid contracts to Halliburton, President Bush watches out for his pals - often at the expense of the American people. So it should have been no surprise Monday when the president commuted the sentence of Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, saving him from 2 1/2 years in prison.

"And yet, somehow it was. The contempt for the rule of law was so blatant, even for this administration."

The Wall Street Journal: "President Bush's commutation late yesterday afternoon of the prison sentence of I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby will at least spare his former aide from 2 1/2 years in prison. But by failing to issue a full pardon, Mr. Bush is evading responsibility for the role his Administration played in letting the Plame affair build into fiasco and, ultimately, this personal tragedy. . . .

"Mr. Bush's commutation statement yesterday is [a] profile in non-courage. He describes the case for and against the Libby sentence with an antiseptic neutrality that would lead one to conclude that somehow the whole event was merely the result of Mr. Libby gone bad as a solo operator. . . .

"Mr. Libby deserved better from the President whose policies he tried to defend when others were running for cover. The consequences for the reputation of his Administration will also be long-lasting."

The New York Post: " Now the president should go all the way -- and grant Libby a full pardon.

"Commutation, after all, doesn't wipe away Libby's perjury conviction. A pardon would.

"Sure, a pardon would provoke an uproar in Washington.

"As if the commutation won't?"