Scooter Admits His Guilt

Thanks to President Bush, a guilty man walks the streets of D.C. a free man. Although Scooter Libby was declared guilty for four of five counts against him, his sentence was commuted by his friend George, but only after he started the appeals process against the verdict. If he was truly innocent, Scooter would have fought the charges regardless of the commutation, yet now he has given up the appeal and come to terms with the jury's decision. Now why would he do that you ask?

From The Huffington Post:

AP reports former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is no longer appealing his conviction in the CIA leak case, a tacit recognition that continuing his legal fight might only make things worse.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction but President Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence in July. Had Libby won a new trial, that commutation would be meaningless and Libby would again face potential prison time.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino refused to comment on the trial during today's press conference despite the fact that there is no longer a pending appeal. Talking Points Memo points out that Tony Snow wouldn't discuss the case previously because of Libby's appeal.

Scooter is well aware that if the proceedings had gone ahead, more information about the whole ordeal could have been made public. He would definitely not want the man who let him out of prison to be directly implicated in his crimes. Now that the case is officially over, the White House is supposed to come clean, since their excuse for not talking was that the case was on appeal. If you think these new developments are going to open the White House's mouth, you obviously have not been paying attention to the Bush Administration for the last several years.

Bush Admits White House Leaked Plame's Name, Then Ignores The Bombshell

President Bush is quite the extraordinary man (boy). At a press conference today he pretty much let out what we already know, one (or two or whatever) of his men leaked Valerie Plame's name, committing treason and then covered it up. The admission came after he was asked about Scooter's commutation, but Bush didn't want to talk about it, so he passed over certain reporters for follow up and went to a Fox News reporter.

From RawStory:

Abramowitz stated, "You spoke very soberly and seriously in your statement about how you weighed different legal questions in coming to your decision on that commutation. But one issue that you did not address was the issue of the morality of your most senior advisers leaking the name of a confidential intelligence operator. Now that the case is over ... can you say whether you were at all disappointed in the behavior of those senior advisers, and have you communicated that disappointment to them in any way?"

"First of all," responded Bush, "the Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision. Secondly, I haven't spent a lot of time talking about the testimony that people throughout my administration were forced to give as a result of the special prosecutor. I didn't ask them during that time, I haven't asked them since. I am aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person, and, you know, I've often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, 'I did it.' Would we have had this -- endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter? But it's been a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House and it's run its course and now we're going to move on. Wendell..."

Bush neither gave Abramowitz the chance for a follow-up question nor apparently remembered that he had already promised to call after Abramowitz on a different reporter, who interjected an objection to being passed over. Instead, Bush called on Wendell Goler of Fox News, who stated, "Thank you, sir. You have spoken passionately about the consequences of failure in Iraq. Your critics say you failed to send enough troops there at the start, failed to keep al Qaeda from stepping into the void created by the collapse of Saddam's army, failed to put enough pressure on Iraq's government to make the political reconciliation necessary to keep the sectarian violence the country is suffering from now from occurring. So why should the American people feel you have the vision for victory in Iraq, sir?"

Michael Abramowitz's question and the subsequent answer left the press corp and the American people feeling more violated than inmate who dropped the soap in the shower every two minutes from shaky hands. Bush mentions the news in a very nonchalant and apathetic way, just as he did about how he doesn't spend much time anymore on Osama bin Laden.

What makes the story more disturbing, yet not surprisingly is how he ignores the history of his own actions. When the focus was on the White House initially to come clean about who leaked what to whom, he said he would fire whoever leaked the information. Now that it is obvious that Scooter was helping his boss Dick Cheney to exact revenge on Joe Wilson and his covert wife, he conveniently forgets his own words.

This is just another reason out of many to impeach the President and Cheney, there are so many to count, but the Congress fails to act. Where's the action? The strength? The courage? Someone needs to stand up for our democracy before there is no democracy left.

Joe Wilson Has Words For Bush Over Libby Commutation

Ambassador Joseph Wilson was invited today by Congressman Conyers to talk about the Libby commutation given by the President. His testimony shows exactly why Scooter Libby deserves to be in jail, along with those (like Dick Cheney) belong there with him.

DNC's Libby Ad: "Honor And Dignity"

Call The White House (Not The Switchboard!)

Much thanks to the CorrenteWire for doing due diligence in finding the telephone numbers inside the White House. No longer can you be stopped by the switchboard, the brave blog found direct numbers for several offices within the Executive Office along with the (separate?) Vice-President's office uptown.

From CorrenteWire:

Most of the numbers in the Directory match what I’ve been able to glean from open sources, so it looks authentic. The offices are taken from the White House site, and the numbers are formatted like so: 1-202-555-1212 / 1-202-555-1212, where the first number is via internet search, and the second, italic number is from the Directory:
The offices included in the Executive Office of the President.

1. Council of Economic Advisers: (202) 456-1414 / (202) 395-5084
2. Council on Environmental Quality: (202) 395-5750 / (202) 456-6224
3. Office of Administration: (202)456-7921 / (202) 456-2861
4. Office of Management and Budget: (202) 395-4840 / (202) 395-4840
5. Office of National Drug Control Policy: (202) 395-6738
6. Office of Science & Technology Policy: (202) 456-6021 / (202) 456-7116
7. President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board: (202) 456-2352
8. United States Trade Representative: (202) 395-7360 / (202) 395-3230

The offices included in the White House Office.

1. Domestic Policy Council: (202) 456-1111 / (202) 456-5594
2. Homeland Security Council: (202) 456-1700
3. National Economic Council: (202) 456-1414 / (202) 456-2800
4. Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: (202) 456-6708 / (202) 456-6708
5. Office of the First Lady: (202) 456-7074 / (202) 456-7064
6. Office of National AIDS Policy : (202) 456-7320 / (202) 456-7320
7. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board: (202) 456-1066
8. USA Freedom Corps: 1-877-872-2677 / 1-877-USA-CORPS
9. White House Fellows Office: (202) 395-4522 / (202) 395-4522
10. White House Military Office: / (202) 757-2151

And the Vice Presidential Entity, whatever branch he ends up in:

1. Shooter: (202) 456-9000 / (202) 456-1414
2. Shooter’s Moll, Lynne: (202) 456-7489

Like Corrente asks, please be polite and don't yell too loudly into the phone when expressing your displeasure with our corrupt Decider. Better yet, get your liberal juices flowing and be creative. If they can come up with myriad ways of thwarting the constitution and our faith in good government, so can we by exposing it. Goodluck callers!

Victor Rita Vs. Scooter Libby, Its All About Who You Know

Scooter Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, that is a fact. So was Victor Rita. A decorated soldier who served in Vietnam and the Gulf War got caught by lying to investigators, which led to a 33 month sentence in jail. He is still there, however Libby never saw the inside of a prison before Bush commuted his sentence. According to the President, the sentence was excessive, Libby had a lifetime of service to his country and his family had paid enough already and blah blah blah. So what about Victor Rita?

From Sentencing Law and Policy:

1. The parallel nature of the crimes. Like Lewis Libby, Victor Rita got caught up in a criminal investigation and ultimately was indicted on five felony counts based on allegations that he lied under oath as part of the investigation. And, like Libby, Victor Rita asserted his innocence and exercised his right to a jury trial. (Victor was convicted of all five counts at trial; Libby's was acquitted on one of five counts, but that may not matter much for sentencing purposes.)

2. The parallel personal history. Like Lewis Libby, Victor Rita is an atypical federal defendant because of his career in government service. Rita served 24 years in the Marine Corps, had tours of duty in Vietnam and the first Gulf war, received over 35 military metals and awards. Libby's pre-conviction resume is (equally?) impressive. The federal guidelines do not provide any formal breaks for government service or prior good works. But, with Booker making the guidelines advisory, federal judges have more discretion to consider these matters at sentencing (though Rita's sentencing judge decided just to follow the guidelines).

Since Victor Rita's crimes seems, in context, to be less serious than Lewis Libby's crimes, I view Rita's 33-month sentence as a possible benchmark for Libby's sentence. Moreover, I have heard that Judge Walton has a reputation as a tough sentencing judge, and so Victor Rita's 33 month sentence might even be viewed as just a floor for considering Libby's fate.

This post is from March and the author was wrong in the fact that Libby would get more time, he got three months less. Yet Bush deemed the sentence was excessive. Wouldn't that mean that Mr. Rita's term was also a bit too much? Obviously he does not have the connections to the President....and that is really all that counts.

Fitzgerald Responds To Libby Commutation

Not surprisingly but extremely shocking news today came from the White House when Bush essentially pardoned Scooter Libby, saving him from jail time but not the fine and probation (for now). This is yet another sad day for the rule of law in America. Patrick Fitzgerald, the man that prosecuted Libby weighs in with a statement read by Keith Olbermann.