Libby Pretty Much Pardoned

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence pleased but did not fully satisfy restive conservatives, while enraging his liberal critics. Libby himself can breathe a sigh of relief that he does not have to serve prison time, but hardly anybody else is all that happy.

Bush overturned the sentencing of an experienced federal Judge in this case in order to keep Libby out of jail. This was to be expected, though the timing is somewhat earlier than predicted. While there has been a long history of presidents handing out pardons and commutations, this one comes at a time when one would expect Bush to be less heavy-handed with his use of executive privilege.

Proponents of The Bush Administration cite the fact that this is the first time in his 7 year tenure that Bush has used executive privilege to grant clemency in a political case. However, one simply has to look at the administration's use of executive privilege to attempt to avoid subpoenas to realize that this will certainly not be the last.

Clearly, The Bush administration has -and will continue to have- a horrendous and corrupt 'old-boy' mentality that is more reminiscent of an English public school than the office of the President of The United States.

Indicating that we will have more to come if he gets into office, Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani called President Bush's actions "Correct."

Just how much of this are our representatives, and through them the US people, going to take before this comes to a head?

I sincerely hope that congress has the spine to follow through with citing The Administration with Contempt for Congress in regards to the subpoenas they issued.