The Law & Order Party

Bush commutes Scooter Libby’s sentence. 

President Bush commuted Monday the prison term of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, facing 30 months in prison after a federal court convicted him of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators.

Note that some folks on the GOP wanted to kick Clinton out of the White House for doing less.

Now, to be sure, a commutation is not a pardon.  The conviction is still on Libby’s record, and he still owes $250K in fines (any bets as to whether there will be fundraising to help him out?).

In a written statement commuting the jail sentence, issued hours after Monday’s ruling, Bush called the sentence “excessive,” and suggested that Libby will pay a big enough price for his conviction.

“The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting,” Bush said.  He said Libby was given “a harsh sentence based in part on allegations never presented to the jury.”

But the commutation does nothing to prevent Libby from appealing his conviction. And if the appeal fails or is still in process at the end of Bush’s term, there is nothing to prevent the President from granting Libby a full pardon before he leaves office.

There’s an old saying, “Caesar’s wife must be beyond reproach.”  The idea is that not only should the leadership avoid out-and-out visible corruption, but must go a few extra steps beyond to be “cleaner than clean.”

By commuting the sentence of an administration insider still in the appeals process, Bush has more than failed that test.