Bush and Libby? Expect Anything Else? 
The Times begins by zeroing in on Bush's lofty declarations during his first presidential campaign in 2000, when he sought to establish a clear-cut distinction between his self-pronounced law-abiding morality with that of President Bill Clinton. Candidate Bush asserted, "(P)olitics, after a time of tarnished ideals, can be higher and better."
An excellent point raised was the distinction Bush clearly draws between crime when committed by "common folk" as opposed to political cronies. While Texas' governor Bush reportedly devoted 15 minutes to evaluating capital punishment cases.
It was none other than conservative talk show host and columnist Tucker Carlson who reported the incident when Bush joked about the impending execution of Karla Faye Tucker, a killer who became a born-again Christian on death row, and whose sentence commutation to life without possibility of parole was supported by Pat Robertson along with many others on both sides of the political divide.
The result of that trip and investigation helped debunk allegations that Iraq had been seeking yellow cake from the African nation of Niger for the enrichment of uranium in connection with efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.
Investigative journalist Robert Parry, who broke details of the Iran-Contra scandal for the Associated Press and Newsweek, in a column today at his Consortiumnews.com site refers to a White House official telling a Washington Post reporter concerning Wilson's trip that the Bush Administration had told at least six reporters about the former ambassador's wife Valerie Plame's service in the CIA "purely and simply out of revenge" against Wilson.
Such conduct illustrates how hell-bent the neocon Republican leadership was to go to war with Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein. Any evidence contradicting assertions that, in Condoleezza Rice's words, a "gigantic mushroom cloud" could be awaiting America from a Saddam Hussein onslaught required a blunt and ruthless response.
In the leakage against Plame that followed, Libby was one of the leakers, briefing Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time, but neither journalist was willing to reveal Plame's identity. Libby also brought White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer into the leak operation.
According to Robert Parry, "Two other leakers, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and his friend, White House political adviser Karl Rove, finally managed to get right-wing columnist Robert Novak to run a story about Plame's identity."
Libby was Cheney's number one subordinate. His fingerprints are visible on the crime scene, as are those of George W. Bush. As for Bush, he pretended to know nothing about the anti-Wilson leaks, even though it was learned that he had authorized release of some intelligence information meant to bolster the White House position on the uranium issue and undercut Wilson.
It is understandable that Bush and Cheney were petrified at the prospect of Libby staring at prison walls and becoming infuriated over his predicament. Here was a man who, as the saying goes, "knew where the bodies were buried."
After destroying Plame's career it was only natural for an Administration steeped in corruption to play defense and seek to present the sordid incident of involving no crime at all. To achieve this objective the neocons called on attorney Victoria Toensing, an established veteran of the Fox Kool-Aid circuit.
Toensing developed a spurious argument that the 25-year-old law protecting identities of U.S. intelligence officers from exposure required that the person or persons involved actually "reside" or "stationed" overseas during the previous five years.
The law refers to officers having "served" abroad in the previous five years, which Plame later testified she had done by traveling overseas on assignments for the CIA.
The irony arising from this sordid pursuit of vengeance by the White House was that Plame was involved in undercover efforts to detect efforts by terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons. This is an area that according to White House nostrums is second to none in the current "war on terror" that the Bush Administration has declared itself to be hell-bent on winning.
Near the end of its editorial The New York Times focused on the irony of the right wing talk show brigade that just a few days ago decried the idea of any special treatment being accorded to Paris Hilton in jail.
The crocodile tears are currently flowing like wine as they praise Bush for terminating unjustified suffering for Libby, explaining that a fine, probation and reputation damage were "harsh punishment" enough for Dick Cheney's top aide.
While on the subject of fine and probation, how long will it be before Bush provides a full pardon for Libby? For anyone following the catastrophic mess occurring on the neocon White House march this, like the sentence commutation, should hardly come as a surprise.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi should be asked a highly pertinent question. Should impeachment still be off the table, Speaker Pelosi?
KEYWORDS: George W. Bush, I. Lewis Libby, Valerie Plame, Joseph Wilson, Libby Sentence Commutation
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