What? Really? Come on, you’re joking.

Come on Duros62, he’s really trying … hard.

I suppose there could be worse things.

Meh, I just think he and Cheney wanted he name cleared for appearances sake. The “woe is Scooter, he can’t practice law” pitch is conceivable, but I’m not buying. I be he can still consult, still hang out with the Cheney crew, and if necessary will be well compensated by the Vast Right Wing Shitweasels.

Not quite, and here is wy Scooter wanted the pardon. With the conviction still in place, Scooter can’t practice law, which cramps his style a lot.

Indeed. And the practical effect of a (near immediate) commutation of Scooter’s prison sentence is that Scooter got off scot-free. What a bunch of bastards the Cheney Administration was.

All that said, the Bush administration did use a very similar power when it dispatched FBI agents to arrest U.S. citizen Jose Padilla on American soil (at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport), but then very shortly thereafter transferred him to military custody, where he was held for the next 3 years with no trial, no charges, and no contact with the outside world, including lawyers. The only thing distinguishing the Padilla case from what Cheney/Addington argued be done in the Lackawanna Six case was that the military wasn’t used to make the initial apprehension of Padilla. But Padilla was then transferred to military custody and held on U.S. soil for years in a brig, incommunicado and tortured, with no charges of any kind (another U.S. citizen, Yaser Hamdi, was treated similarly until the Supreme Court ruled he was entitled to some sort of hearing, after which he was sent to Saudi Arabia).

(And yes, Greenie correctly calls out Obama for endorsing this garbage:

All of this underscores why it is so important to vigorously oppose the efforts of the Obama administration (a) to continue many of the radical Bush/Cheney Terrorism programs and even to implement new ones (preventive detention, military commissions, extreme secrecy policies, warrantless surveillance, denial of habeas corpus) and (b) to endorse the core Orwellian premise that enables all of that (i.e., the “battlefield” is anywhere and everywhere; the battle against Terrorism is a “War” like the Civil War or World War II and justifies the same powers).

)

If Scooter Libby hadn’t obstructed justice, maybe we could have nailed him, but as we know from the conviction. Scooter took the fall for all his pals, possibly thinking a presidential pardon would be his reward. But that pardon would have relieved him of any Fifth Amendment protection related to testimony about those events, and perjury would have again been an option. No pardon, no testimony. Hmmm.

The practical effect of no pardon for Scooter is that he can’t be forced to testify about what Bush or Cheney knew. I suppose you think that even though a doofus like me knows that, the president’s lawyers might not have thought of it. But even the article mentions that the president sought the advice of his personal attorney on the subject rather than the staff lawyer who would usually handle such matters. Why would he do that if he had no personal exposure?

Oh well, as we know from Bill Clinton, lying under oath, NO MATTER WHAT IT IS ABOUT, is a crime, so Scooter definitely deserved the conviction.

Right?

Yes, and ten to one they’ll find one that involved fighting Iran by invading North Korea.

Kinda touching to watch SF defend the indefensible so earnestly and passionately. PS, SF: The fact that Armitage was the first to leak, does not mean that Libby, Rove and Cheney were innocent. You think Libby lied to protect Armitage?

Um, Ol’ Scooter got his sentence commuted in wicked short order. He didn’t get the full pardon, but he never really had any punishment, and Dick and Bunnypants got to cover their asses. If you want to pretend that George Bush, Jr. was an awesome, free-thinking, cowboy (as Junior no doubt does), that’s your prerogative. But we reality based life forms know better. I wonder why we’re not seeing much of the Elder Statesman Captain Dress-Up these days. Hmm…

But of course, this is a contextual thing. Most conservatives respect/prefer military, police, religious and corporate authority, while liberals prefer governmental authority “on behalf of the little guy”.

I’m seeing the same old class struggle going on behind the scenes. The rich and powerful can buy or push their way in or out of many military, police, religious and corporate issues that impacts the regular guy, and then the regular guy tries to unify in order to pressure government (or somebody else with power or influence) to push back on their behalf.

Well, I figured since it was *HIM*, not Bush, Cheney, Rove or Libby who leaked Plame’s status, I figured it was relevent. Guess I overestimated the “reality based” community.

Exactly, Dennis. I think this is the first time you have agreed with me.

There was that one time you told me ‘Well played, Dennis” and I agreed with you on that, Duros.

No. The FBI was in charge, and used unarmed Bradley armored troop carriers to patrol the perimeter and combat engineering vehicles to flatten fencing around the compound. They used these vehicles, which were obtained from the US Army, to breach the wall for a CS gas insertion.

I looked it up online. Why didn’t you do that before you made the accusation?

That explains why most of the fucked-up stuff happened in the first term. It doesn’t explain why Bush let Cheney lead him around by the nose in the first term, as your post suggests.

Which guy was president? Can you see Joe Biden telling Barack Obama what to do?

Ahhh…the all knowing “Indeed”. How do you gain access to such scandalous information from your mom’s basement? Must be pretty tough.

That’s another dumb left wing talking point. Cheney was more influential than most VP’s but Bush ultimately made the decisions. He went against Cheney’s wishes on a number of fronts, especially throughout his 2nd term.

You could practically see Cheney’s hand up Bush’s ass to make his lips move.

Like he did when he made W. pardon Scooter Libby just as he was leaving office, Duros. Cheney could make that man, I mean, puppet, do anything.