PARDONING LIBBY….I’m curious: why is it that George Bush is apparently digging in his heels and planning not to intervene in the Scooter Libby case? Consider:
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The conservative base is furious that Bush hasn’t pardoned Libby, and Bush usually tries to tend the base pretty carefully.
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You have to figure that Dick Cheney wants Libby to be pardoned, and he’s usually pretty persuasive about this kind of thing.
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Bush is a lame duck, so it’s not as if a pardon will hurt his reelection chances.
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Pardoning Libby and claiming that this is a principled stand against a liberal witch hunt is precisely the kind of thing Bush would normally be expected to do.
What am I missing? In what way would a pardon hurt Bush?
POSTSCRIPT: On another note, if I’m ever convicted on federal charges, I’d just like to ask all of Washington’s prominent hawks and neocons not to write letters to the judge on my behalf. It just seems to have pissed him off.
