Sorry but not really surprised Bush did that. Libby was the scapegoat and took the fall for Rove. Still a scumbag.

He's keeping Libby out of prison to protect his own skin. The alternative for Libby to stay out of prison is for him to start remembering all that stuff that previously slipped his mind.

Because there has been a conspiracy for some time, and scooter knows too much. I wouldn't be surprised if "the wolves got him". I wouldn't be surprised if the media never tells you if they do. Including this one.

The Bush Administration has no respect for the rule of law. Even G. Gordon Liddy spent time in prison. Dick Cheney and G. W. Bush should be impeached, convicted and removed from office. They are the worst Administration in modern history. They are a disgrace to America.

Sorry to say that out of all the articles online about Bush commuting Libby's sentence... ALL OF THEM HAVE FAILED to look beyond the surface.. MJ's article here asks the right question (Why did Bush Commute Scooter Libby's Sentence?"), but fails to look beyond the surface and really dig into to find the true answer... Yes, maybe partly it was to appease the base (or what remains of it)... but then why didn't he PARDON? The answer is he and/or CHENEY need LIBBY to continue his appeals so they can still have the excuse of "we're not going to comment on an on-going case" to use to run the clock out until the end of this administration... they want to be able to obstruct the progress of any investigations into this and other matters... Then, perhaps at the end of the administration, Bush may end up pardoning Libby.

Perhaps, just perhaps, Scooter didn't want the heart medicine they had for Kenny Boy to ease his time in prison.

FightThePower is 100% absolutely correct!

Fitzgerald left a "cloud" over Cheney's head. I believe (. . . hope?) that Fitzgerald will grant now grant Libby immunity for testimony against cheney. Libby can then be compelled to testify or be held in criminal contempt and, yes, go to jail. I think Fitzy still has a couple cards up his sleave which he placed there after he correctly anticipated that this would happen if he got a conviction against Libby. We'll see.

Libowitz, other wise known as Libby is a Zionist. Remember that Orthodox Jew, Abramoff? Part of the group that influences Cheny. David Wurmser is one of the others. Bush is the puppet and does what he is told. The power behind the throne, is Cheny, who gets his influence from the Zionists. This is why we are in Iraq, and Iran is next. The Jews make up only 1% of the population, but look at their disproportionate influence on Bush. We need more diversity here, not so much concentration by one group that only makes up 1% of the population.

This is part one of a two-part process. First commute Libby's jail time. Part two--at the end of Bush's term--a full pardon. Although the president has the constitutional power to do so, to commute at this stage of the process is--like most actions of this radically ultra conservative administration--exceedingly stupid politics. What Cheney and his henchmen have actually proven by their six years of incompetent rule is that radically ultra conservative philosophy that's been touted for the past forty years, starting with Goldwater, is a dismal failure.

I hear that Marc Rich was a friend of Abe Foxman of the ADL and Clinton supported him by pardoning Marc Rich. This is similar to the Marc Rich-Clinton case. We need more diversity in government. 1% should not rule over the rest.

Libby(Libowitz) was Marc Rich's attorney. See the web? Clinton pardoned Libowitz's client and Bush pardons the attorney. See the power behind the throne? Fitzgerald was also the prosecutor in that(Marc Rich) case.

I read some time ago in the Wayne Madsen report that Fitzgerald was ordered by Gonzalez in a last minute Friday visit to the court house to seal the indictments against Cheney and Rove that the mostly minority DC grand jury handed down. Fitzgerald of course obeyed because they have the goods on him for covering up certain intelligence community connections to the first world trade center bombings that he investigated when he was FED DA to the NYC district. Libby agreed to take the fall for Cheney and Rove(so that government by, of, and for the oligarcs could continue) in exchange for 10 million dollars which Cheney will pay him from his personal wealth. So long as the code of silence is intact the pack of rats will continue to knaw at the tree of government. Where is Ross Perot when we need him to "clean out the barn"? Alas he too made a silent deal with the Bush cabal...another story for another day. Maybe Al Gore can save us, but alas he too "toked" a deal. God why do we elect cocaine alcoholics to be our presidents? Maybe because they R US.

What was really interesting was Press Secretary Tony Snow's snow job on the media. First he says, "You have to understand the complexities of this case to understand the President's decision." Then, when taken to task by a member of the press corp, he retorts, "I am not going to go in to the details as to why the President made his decision to commute."

Man, does he think we are idiots?

Talk about unprofessional...Snow became "flippant" on an sarcastic apology, scratched his nose as if he had a whistle-buger up his nostril, and acted as if he was on snow with his lazy answering demeanor. I believe if he had gotten a butt itch, he would have unshamebly scratched his ass in front of the whole press corp.

What’s new? This was the cowboy governor of the rogue state of Texas, the world leader in death justice. No pardons was ever offered to the innocents ran over by the rogue justice system.

I fail to understand why Bush's commutation is being accepted as a done deal. He simply made a statement. While he has the right under the Constitution to commute a sentence, he also has the obligation to go through the steps and chanels to make it so. He has not done that. Can't Congress just come back and say it's worthless? I don't think that the Founding Fathers intended to give a President such unitarian powers. There has to be a checks and balance in there if we look close enough.

"My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of public service and professional work in the legal community is forever damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. He will remain on probation. The significant fines imposed by the judge will remain in effect. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting." Dumya 02JULY2007

Oh,PLEASE cut me a freaking break!

Scooter-cooter was second rate neo-conniving bureaucratic tool Dick Vader obviously found to be fairly expendable. Bush simply caved to the fear that one loss of the soap in the showers of Club Fed would be more than sufficient impetus to loosen Scooter-Booter's lips with precision and accuracy unparalleled by a double-crossed informant to date. Bush knew Scooter was tuned up to sing in great voice within 30 seconds of his incarceration.

When I consider that Scooter Libby disclosed the identity of active covert intelligence agent Valerie Plame-Wilson, on the orders of Dick Cheney, in retaliation against Ambassador Joe Wilson for publishing an op-ed dismissing Yellow Cake Uranium as a myth, 30 months was nothing, if not a generously light sentence. This justification for America's unilateral preemptive invasion of a nation that was no threat or danger to us has cost America her reputation, our liberties and rights, and global stability. America's Intelligence Community has lost other covert agents. Iraq has lost hundreds of thousands of civilian souls, mostly women, children, and elders who offended or threatened NO ONE! America has lost thousands of contractors and American military service personnel in an occupation with no exit strategy, so as to allow time for the establishment of more than a dozen American military command centers and strategic installations in the Middle East. American National Security has been nearly irreparably damaged, all because of the feigned War on Terror, fueled shamefully by our grief from 11SEP2001. The result has been that the military-industrial complex of CORPORATE AMERICA has enriched a rabid handful of wealthy deviants who have presumed to rule Planet Earth vicariously, operating clandestinely at the most finite point of plausible deniability, cloaked in the American flag, elevating a burning Cross of Christ. They are neither patriots nor Christians. They aren't even exceptional contributors to public service or any given profession, whose glowingly wonderful facade as the venerated heads of moral and ethical households has been grievously tarnished when the truth of their warranted despair and naked loyalty finally brought them to our mercifully corrective chastisement, as Dumya would have us believe about Scooter. These fiends are very deliberately calculating, greedy, murderous traitors to America whose terrible treason and utter malfeasance DEMAND the AMERICAN JUSTICE of due prosecution, and their complete service of an appropriate sentence befitting their CRIMES. Now, let's roll on that! IMPEACH AND TRY THEM ALL!

Why did Bush pardon Libby? To cover his at best unethical ass.

Cause Libby is Jewish.

You goy do as your told.

Bush told everyone they can lie for him without consequences. Was Cheney involved in having the forged Iraq/Niger uranium documents planted?

I think Dubya had no choice but to pardon Scooter because Scooter has the goods on dub and Cheney, and would likely turn on them and spill the beans if he had to spend any significant amount of time in prison.

I think he commuted the sentence because that was always the plan. Libby takes the fall and they stop the prosecution there. Then, before he leaves office Bush pardons him and they all are safe.

With all this invigorating righteousness re.Libby & the Pres. Is it going to be any better in the future, are yu still going to elect another numbskull. Bush has still destroyed trust, people' lives so much, what will this experience do to put things right?