Passage from McClellan’s book on the Libby commutation
Thanks to this post at TalkLeft I saw this post from Christopher Bateman at Vanity Fair titled “McClellan Disappointed (and McCain Still Mum) About Libby Commutation.” Here are highlights:
Scott McClellan’s bombshell book… [includes] a forceful denunciation of President Bush’s decision to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence after his conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame affair:
It’s … clear to me that Scooter Libby was guilty of the perjury and obstruction crimes for which he was convicted. When the president commuted Libby’s prison sentence and thereby protected him from serving even one day behind bars, I was disappointed. This kind of special treatment undermines our system of justice…. President Bush certainly has the right and the power to commute Libby’s sentence. But in choosing to do so, he sent an unfortunate message to America and the world — that in the United States criminal behavior on behalf of a political cause may go unpunished if those who support that cause have the power to make it happen.
The Vanity Fair post goes on to not that John McCain was spoke out on behalf of Libby in 2007 but that “McCain has declined to speak about the commutation, and his campaign has not returned VF Daily’s request to comment on McClellan’s statements.” Needless to say, I think (along surely with folks at Pardon Power) that the Libby commutation should be a campaign issue in the weeks and months ahead.
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