Libby-rated July 5, 2007March 8, 2017 HAPNW Tina: ‘Please clarify the date extension for the warrants – you said August 31, but this says July 31.’ ☞ The executive I talked with must have misspoken. But if the S.E.C. takes longer to approve the proxy statement, the both sides would most likely just agree to another extension. RUBBER DUCKS They fell off a boat and have been swimming around the world – thousands of them – ever since. Click here. (Thanks, Peter.) PAUL BEGALA ON SCOOTER LIBBY Did you see this in the Huffington Post, commenting on how tough President Bush is? Tough enough to execute Karla Fay Tucker – and then laugh about it. Tough enough to sign a death warrant for a man whose lawyer slept through the trial – and then snicker when asked about it in a debate. Even tough enough to execute a great-grandmother who murdered her husband – after he abused her. A friend of mine at the time asked Bush to commute her sentence, telling him, “Betty Lou ain’t a threat to no one she ain’t married to.” No dice. Mr. Bush is tough enough to invade a country that was no risk to America, causing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and shedding precious American blood in the process. Tough enough to sanction torture. Tough enough to order an American citizen arrested and held without trial. But if you’re rich and right-wing and Republican, George is a real softie. As George W. Bush demonstrated in giving Scooter Libby a Get Out of Jail Free Card, he is only compassionate to conservatives. What does it say about America in the age of Bush when Judith Miller spends more time in jail over the Valerie Plame smear than Scooter Libby? BIDEN ON LIBBY Senator Joe Biden emails: . . . President Bush decided to commute Scooter Libby’s 30 month prison sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice because it was ‘excessive.’ Yet, last year, the Bush administration filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in an attempt to uphold a lower court’s ruling that a 33 month prison sentence for Victor Rita, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, was ‘reasonable.’ The questions we should all be asking ourselves today are: Why is the President flip-flopping? Why does Scooter Libby get special treatment? George Bush’s disregard for the rule of law is truly unbecoming a President. I’m calling on every American to flood the White House this week with phone calls and tell the President, “In 2000, when you ran for president, you promised to ‘uphold the honor and dignity’ of the office of President of the United States – We’re Still Waiting.” Call the White House: 202-456-1414. DEAN ON LIBBY . . . ROMNEY, GIULIANI, AND THOMPSON DNC Chair Governor Howard Dean emails: Despite overwhelming public opposition, President Bush commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby, the former White House Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney who was convicted by a jury of lying about a matter of national security. . . . Bush doesn’t care that Libby was convicted by a jury of his peers and sentenced by an experienced federal judge, and he doesn’t care that Libby’s sentence was well within the sentencing guidelines set by Congress. He once again ignored over 70% of the American public and disregarded the legal process — this time to help someone who has friends in the right places. . . . The Republican presidential candidates long ago lined up in support of Scooter Libby . . . Rudy Giuliani, who brags of being tough on crime, prosecuted perjury cases as a lawyer and wanted mandatory sentences on people who commit perjury. But yesterday he went out of his way to support Scooter Libby, saying “I believe the decision was correct.” In an interview with the Wall Street Journal editorial board he offered what they said “sounds an awful lot like an argument for a pardon,” and said “I think the option the president really has is commutation.” Mitt Romney [as governor of Massachusetts] never granted a pardon, even for the most trivial offense. But when asked if he would consider pardoning Scooter Libby, Mitt Romney said “It’s worth looking at that. I will study it very closely if I’m lucky enough to be president. And I’d keep that option open.” Yesterday he blamed the prosecutor and completely ignored the jury, saying that “the prosecutor knew that there had not been a crime committed.” Lobbyist Fred Thompson, the ultimate Washington insider, has helped to raise millions of dollars as a chair of Scooter Libby’s legal defense fund. . . . He also said that he would issue a pardon and claimed that Libby’s conviction was “a gross injustice … and it ought to be rectified.” No more. Democrats will bring dignity back to the White House in 2008, but it’s up to us to make sure that happens. Contribute today: http://www.democrats.org/FelonFreed Thank you for fighting back, Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.