Thank You, Mr. President

A hearty "thank you" to our president for proving again that we have (at least) two systems of justice in this country, one for everybody else and one for cronies of our president.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will now serve less time in jail than Judith Miller, who was incarcerated for (unwisely, in retrospect) refusing to testify in his case.

Since I hate to write about stuff that half the galaxy is dwelling on, I won't waste much time on this except to speculate on the following:

• If the sentencing guidelines under which Scooty was stentenced are "excessive" -- this is, after all, an assault on the guidelines as much as anything else -- aren't they "excessive" for everyone else?
• How about a parole, Mr. President?

The media coverage assumes that the commutation is all that is going to happen. I don't read the president's statement that way. The commutation strikes me as an interim action, to be followed by a pardon if and when Libby's appeal is denied.

UPDATE: The president today refused to rule out the possibility of a pardon, which means it's gonna happen.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



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Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
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