Get out of jail free

Politics never cease to amaze me, how standards change depending on if "our" guy is in power or not. President Bush keeps Scooter Libby out of jail because suddenly he feels that the normal sentance for perjury is just "excessive". But I do find it interesting that while we impeached our last president for perjury (about sex), we now say punishment is too harsh for perjury over leaking classified information concerning national security. And remember, Scooter Libby wasn't prosecuted for what he said about Valerie Plame, so whatever you believe about her is besides the point. He was prosecuted for lying to a grand jury. So is lying under oath no big deal anymore?

As far as this being a political prosecution, I think Orin Kerr sums that up nicely:

The Scooter Libby case has triggered some very weird commentary around the blogosphere; perhaps the weirdest claim is that the case against Libby was "purely political."

I find this argument seriously bizarre. As I understand it, Bush political appointee James Comey named Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Plame leak. Bush political appointee and career prosecutor Fitzgerald filed an indictment and went to trial before Bush political appointee Reggie Walton. A jury convicted Libby, and Bush political appointee Walton sentenced him. At sentencing, Bush political appointee Judge Walton described the evidence against Libby as "overwhelming" and concluded that a 30-month sentence was appropriate. And yet the claim, as I understand it, is that the Libby prosecution was the work of political enemies who were just trying to hurt the Bush Administration.

I find this claim bizarre. I'm open to arguments that parts of the case against Libby were unfair. But for the case to have been purely political, doesn't that require the involvement of someone who was not a Bush political appointee? Who are the political opponents who brought the case? Is the idea that Fitzgerald is secretly a Democratic party operative? That Judge Walton is a double agent? Or is the idea that Fitzgerald and Walton were hypnotized by "the Mainstream Media" like Raymond Shaw in the Manchurian Candidate? Seriously, I don't get it.

Coming days after this Administration flat out refused to comply with Congressional subpoenas over the illegal politicalization of the Justice Department, I think this, once again, emphasizes the fact that this President thinks he and his people are above the rule of law. And it just stuns me that the so-called "conservative" party thinks that is okay. Since there are few politicians that ever willingly give up ceded new powers, it will be fascinating to see what happens when the next Democratic president pulls these same stunts. How will the Republicans argue against them? How many Democrats will feel uneasy but not say anything because they'll feel the Republicans deserve the payback? It is a vicious cycle, and I believe this is bad, bad news for this country.