Bush must pardon Libby

Thursday, 8th March 2007

Scooter Libby could go to jail for lying for his boss, Dick Cheney. George W. Bush should step in and pardon a man who is only in legal trouble because of his total loyalty to the Bush administration.

The irony of the whole ‘Plamegate’ fiasco is that it has left everyone dissatisfied. Liberals became convinced that the investigation would result in Rove’s indictment and the crumbling of the Bush presidency. The investigation was just another example of the losers in American politics hoping the legal process could achieve what they couldn’t at the ballot box. Yet despite the discomfort that Libby’s conviction will cause, it hardly threatens to bring down the President.

To be sure, Scooter Libby shouldn’t have lied to either the grand jury or to the FBI. But empathy demands that we understand the position of a political figure like Libby. He knew that whatever he said (under oath) would come back to bite him and his boss. Presumably, that’s why he lied about events, even though he had committed no crime.

We shall soon find out if President George W. Bush is the man he prides himself on being. Bush makes much of the premium he places on loyalty. He claims to do the right thing regardless of whether it is popular or not. If that’s really the case, Scooter Libby should sleep easy and expect a presidential pardon before he spends a single night in the cells. This whole investigation and trial has been a political affair from the start. So it is only appropriate that it should end with a political decision, not a legal one.