The Commuter

The Bush administration's policy had been not to comment on ongoing criminal cases, especially those involving former White House staffers. Not anymore.

President Bush commuted the sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby on Monday, sparing him from a 2½-year prison term that Bush said was excessive.

Bush’s move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case. That meant Libby was likely to have to report to prison soon and put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby’s allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

“I respect the jury’s verdict,” Bush said in a statement. “But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.”

And why not? What's going to happen, is Bush's approval rating going to drop to 25 percent?

Well, yeah, of course it will. But that was going to happen anyway. Look at it this way: If there's a puddle of vomit in the street and a dog comes along and shits in it, does that really affect anyone's opinion of the puddle? The puddle was already disgusting.

The only difference is now a couple of more people are disgusted.

I wonder who in the White House thinks that this "pardon light" commuting bullshit is going to save any face for Bush. Hardcore conservatives will be disappointed that Libby didn't get a full pardon, and everyone else will react as though he did. In the end, it's just another example of Bush saying he will do one thing and doing the other, just another example of hypocritical conservative-style governing. Justice? Accountability? Those are just words for the rubes on the campaign trail.

This goes to show who is running the White House. After all, Libby wasn't Bush's chief of staff.