Bush and Libby
The commutation is a profile in non-courage
Wall
Street Journal Editorial
July 3, 2007
President Bush's commutation late yesterday afternoon of the prison
sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will at least spare his former
aide from 2 1/2 years in prison. But by failing to issue a full pardon,
Mr. Bush is evading responsibility for the role his Administration
played in letting the Plame affair build into fiasco and, ultimately,
this personal tragedy.
Mr. Libby will have to pay a fine of $250,000 and serve two years
probation. This reflects the leniency that was previously recommended
by the federal probation office but was rejected by Judge Reggie Walton
in his vindictive sentence.
These columns have had cause to defend the Bush Presidency from what
we've seen as often meritless or exaggerated partisan attacks, notably
over national security and the Iraq war. This, however, will stand as a
dark moment in this Administration's history. Joe Wilson's original,
false accusation about pre-war intelligence metastasized into the issue
of who "outed" his wife, Valerie Plame, as an intelligence officer. As
the event unfolded, it fell to Mr. Libby to defend the Administration
against Mr. Wilson's original charge, with little public assistance or
support from the likes of Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell or Stephen
Hadley.
In no small part because of these profiles in non-courage, it was Mr.
Libby who found himself caught up in prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's
hunt for the Plame leaker, which he and his masters at Justice knew
from Day One to be State Department official Richard Armitage. As Mr.
Fitzgerald's obsessive exercise ground forward, Mr. Libby got caught in
a perjury net that we continue to believe trapped an innocent man who
lost track of what he said, when he said it, and to whom.
Mr. Bush's commutation statement yesterday is another profile in
non-courage. He describes the case for and against the Libby sentence
with an antiseptic neutrality that would lead one to conclude that
somehow the whole event was merely the result of Mr. Libby gone bad as
a solo operator. Here is how Mr. Bush addressed it in his statement
yesterday, which may now stand as history's take-away from the Libby
trial:
"My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh
punishment for Mr. Libby. The reputation he gained through his years of
public service and professional work in the legal community is forever
damaged. His wife and young children have also suffered immensely. . .
. The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a
lawyer, public servant, and private citizen will be long-lasting."
Mr. Libby deserved better from the President whose policies he tried to
defend when others were running for cover. The consequences for the
reputation of his Administration will also be long-lasting.
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© 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
