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Up Next for Libby: How to Get Pardoned

The pressing question for Scooter Libby, now that he's been convicted on four of the five counts against him and faces 25 years in prison, is how to get off the hook. Who will pardon him and when? The answer to the first question is Bush, probably, but would W. really do it in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign? That would surely sink the already rickety Republican ship.

Libby is to be sentenced in June and cynical professionals in Washington don't expect him to do any jail time. They know he'll get off one way or another. Key pardons of the past:

President Jerry Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for official misconduct on September 8,1974. Of course, that was after Nixon resigned. At the time polls showed Americans were against the pardon.

Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam war resisters.

George H.W. Bush pardoned 75 people. They included six top Reagan administration officials tied up in the Iran contra scandal. (Bush senior owed his very political existence to Reagan. Reagan trounced him in the Republicans primaries in '80, then magnanimously offered him the vice presidency, which the Connecticut blueblood grabbed.) Casper Weinberger, secretary of Defense, was convicted of lying to the independent counsel. He was pardoned by Bush Sr.

Clinton pardoned billionaire Marc Rich.

-- James Ridgeway

Comments

Johnathan,

I think you're reaching a bit. You can't lump Vietnam War protestors with the likes of Gerald Ford and GHW Bush. The former were principled and moral; they didn't avoid responsibility for what they did. The latter, on the other hand, were all about irresponsibility, with Ford leading the way. Once he pardoned Nixon it was a land rfush toward irresponsibility.

Will Libby get off? Sure, just like the generals who perpetrated the atrocities at Walter Reed. Sure, everyone's lost their jobs, but their cushy pensions'll soften the blow. Kinda like being sent to your room where you can still play with your iPod, PC, game counsel, etc.

Now, if these perps were of a minority race holding up a convenience or liquor store...

Posted by: David Culver on 03/06/07 at 3:10 PM

I don't think the Republican Party will allow Bush to pardon Libby. He may do so, in spite of them, as he leaves office, but until then he would be foolish to do so.

The foundation of the Shrub-Dub house of cards has been undermined by Cheney throwing Libby to the dogs and hoping there would be no conviction.

I do believe that the next indictment will be Cheney (if he doesn't die off first) and then Shrub-Dub. There is no more fodder to toss in front of the cannons.

Posted by: D. Glen Jackson on 03/06/07 at 6:52 PM

Dubya not pardon his best buddies Pal ... surely you jest

It is inevitable. So long as
cronyism exists a person in
Libbys postion could be found
guilty of cannabalism and the latest ventriloquist dummy at
the top will excuse his actions with some rationalization. And then twenty college professors will add their textpert opinions and an intellectualization will have been authored.

Government is the shadow cast by big business making big bucks. Just ask the Iraqi's

Posted by: Douglas F Maliszewski on 03/07/07 at 5:56 AM

If Scooter Libby gets a pardon. Vow. What does that say of your democracy? What does that say of the rule of law and "Justice" in the United States of America. Precedent setting is it not? A President can ask a subordinate in HIS administration to commit perjury on HIS behalf. Thus it is a PREMEDITATED CRIME and a PREMEDITATED PARDON. The President wants an official to commit a crime and guarantees that same official a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD. What a farce for American justice. Justice is no longer blind in America.

Is your president & his men above the law? It would indeed seem that way.

ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN, PART II.

(All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.)

Posted by: Paul Malouf on 03/07/07 at 2:12 PM