Scooter Commuted, Justice Denied?

It's hard to see the great miscarriage of justice that President Bush needed to correct when he commuted Scooter Libby's prison sentence tonight.

Leave aside the war, the disparagement of Joe Wilson's wife, even the CIA's recently released chronology of her employment that made it clear that she was covert, had traveled abroad and fell under the perview of the Intelligence Identities Act, the suspected violation of which started this whole thing.

White collar criminals are prosecuted every day for misstatements that juries consider lies. Ask Martha Stewart.

Scooter Libby was indicted by a Bush-appointed prosecutor who was given his authority by the Bush Justice Department and then a Bush-appointed judge presided while a jury of his peers convicted him on four of five counts. An appelate court loaded with such noted liberals as Reagan appointee David Sentelle denied his appeals.

Where is the miscarriage of justice that required a president, notoriously stingy with pardons, to swoop in?

Is it because no underlying crime had been proven to be committed? Hmmm. None of Libby's champions seemed to mind, back in the 90s, that Bill Clinton was impeached and nearly expelled from office for alleged perjury stemming from an investigation in which no underlying crime was found.

But back then Bill Kristol and others were not calling for mercy.

Matt Cooper's full Capital blog post on the commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence can be found here.