Kristol Claims A Libby Pardon Would Remove The ‘Cloud Over The White House And The War’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/11/kristol-libby-pardon/

Kristol Claims A Libby Pardon Would Remove The ‘Cloud Over The White House And The War’

In this week’s Weekly Standard, editor Bill Kristol writes that Bush must pardon Libby immediately. “If the president does intend to pardon Libby, there is no reason to wait,” he writes.

Asked to comment further on his editorial, Kristol claimed this morning that pardoning Libby would remove the “cloud hanging over his White House and over the war.” He added that if Bush waits, “Fitzgerald will keep repeating that there’s a cloud over the White House, and Bush will be passive, and it will demoralize his supporters.” Watch it at link:

The reason a cloud exists over the White House is because it has failed to confront questions about the involvement of Bush, Cheney, Rove, and other key figures. As Juan Williams noted, if Bush were to pardon Libby, he would only exacerbate the cloud that exists.

“It would be more than a cloud,” Williams said. “It would be a veil at that point, because people would say there is no accountability in this administration for their actions and they excuse their friends.”

Transcript:

WALLACE: The special prosecutor said in his closing statement that there’s a cloud over the vice presidency, a cloud over the White House. If this appeal drags on with motions, and Fitzgerald responding to motions, and we have a year of back and forth, every time something like that is in the press, that will be there, and it’s unresponded to.

The president has taken the position that well, he can’t deal with this. There’s a trial going on. So someone has been convicted, I think unfortunately and unfairly, but nonetheless. Fitzgerald will keep repeating that there’s a cloud over the White House, and Bush will be passive, and it will demoralize his supporters.

He needs to pardon Libby now. I think that would actually reinvigorate his supporters and show that he’s willing to fight to defend his people and defend the war that he led us into.



I mean, it’s going to be hanging out there. Not to pardon him and to go into a defensive crouch, which is where the White House is now, is to leave that cloud hanging over his White House and over the war.

And even if things get better in Iraq, as I suspect they are thanks to the surge, there will be a sense of illegitimacy in the president’s effort to make the case for the war at the beginning and to respond to critics of the war like Joe Wilson, which his White House did entirely legitimately.

WILLIAMS: But don’t you think — I mean, look. The cloud exists. And if he were to pardon, he would exacerbate all those tensions. In fact, I think he would — it would be more than a cloud.

It would be a veil at that point, because people would say there is no accountability in this administration for their actions and they excuse their friends.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. smoking gun. mushroom cloud. hmmm. Nope, I don't get what

krystal, the kool-aid snorting apologist who still thinks WMD exist in IraqNam, is suggesting.
Pardon Libby, and many more people will be angry.

[saltpoint]

2. Kristol is in denial of course, but the war he helped engineer and pimp

has failed to return positive dividends.

You lost, Bill. Big time.

[opihimoimoi]

3. Kristol is smoking some strong shit...he is delusional beyond recovery

[zulchzulu]

4. I'd rather remove the Clowns In The White House instead...

Captain PNAC always has the wrong thing to say...

[Renew Deal]

5. That's one of the most backwards things I have ever read.

Pardoning him would exasperate the coverup.

[Straight Shooter]

6. I think the cloud to which Fitzgerald was referring is Cheney, and his abuse of power.

I suppose Kristol would be okay with removing Cheney if that's what it took to remove the cloud.

Some people will never see the light.

[Joe Bacon]

7. A pardon would prove IOKIYAR.

The whole world will see that Nazi Republicans are above the law. They can do anything and it is OK. Is that what we need to get people into a Howard Beale frame of mind?????

[meegbear]

8. Giving him a pardon will just make everything ducky ...

what a douchebag.

[glitch]

9. And we all know Kristol is always right.

Listen to him George and everything will be just fine for you... :evilgrin:

[Rydz777]

10. Chickenhawk

Kristol is one of the chief chickenhawks, perfectly willing, even eager, to send other people's kids off to die and be maimed. When the whole mess collapses, his excuse will be that "we didn't send enough troops." If lying to the public were a crime, Kristol himself would be facing jail.

[donsu]

11. the cloud is in Kristol's arrogant brain

nt

[annabanana]

12. Kristol should be keel-hauled.

He is an asshole of the first water and should never be listened to.

[Phredicles]

13. Has Kristol ever been right about ANYthing?

The fact that he thinks pardoning Libby is a good idea is proof that it's not.

[ClassWarrior]

14. As Tweety said, a pardon is an admission of guilt.

NGU.

[Supersedeas]

15. they want to talk about anything but the Evidence presented against Libby and the Admin

[JDPriestly]

16. Kristol is just blowing smoke in our eyes.

Pardoning Libby for lying to the Grand Jury will not remove the cloud over the Vice president and the White House. It will just mean Libby will have trouble pleading the Fifth Amendment when Congress calls him to answer to them about the lies and the conspiracy behind the lies and make it easier for Congress to call him to testify at an earlier date. It will relieve Libby from the legal repercussions of his conviction -- like having to serve his sentence. It will make Libby’s life a little easier and make him and his family feel a little better – maybe. But it will not change the fact that he lied or that he was convicted for perjury by a unanimous jury of eleven of his peers or remove the evidence produced in his trial from the record.

So, no, Mr. Kristol, the pardon won’t do the trick. The cloud on the Vice President and the White House is caused by the fact that the evidence presented to convict Libby proves that the Vice President and the White House lied to get the U.S. to invade Iraq, and that, when Wilson presented evidence that the lie was knowing and not just a mistake, the Vice President and possibly others in the White House instructed Libby and others to out Plame. Libby was instructed to out Plame in order to discredit Wilson and the truth Wilson was telling. Through Plame’s outing, the Vice President hoped to get personal revenge for what he felt was embarrassing information and to cover up the fact that the Vice President and the White House had knowingly lied to get the U.S. to go to war with Iraq. The cloud exists because the Libby trial, aside from Libby’s conviction, proved that the Vice President and quite possibly Bush himself ordered the outing of Plame for his or their own personal political purposes -- to save their political hides for the 2004 election.

This brings us to the next cockamamie propaganda you are going to hear from the Bush apologists – that Wilson can’t proceed in his civil trial because the defendants are immune since they are public employees and officials. I believe Cheney and the other defendants have no right to immunity in the Wilson’s civil case. Here is why.

Immunity protects public officials from suits against them as individuals for acts they perform in the line of their public duties. For example, a police officer is acting in the line of duty if he kills a drug dealer who has pulled a gun on the officer. The officer is most likely immune from prosecution or civil suit regarding the killing provided he was following the official rules for such situations.

But clearly there are limits on immunity. In our example, let's say that the real reason the police officer killed the drug dealer was to cover up the police officer's own involvement in profiting from drug dealing. Under those facts, the police officer probably will not be found to be entitled to immunity and will be subject to a suit and personal liability in a civil court for the killing.

The evidence in the Libby trial shows that Cheney had no official or national security ground for outing Plame. He outed Plame for personal political advantage. He outed her to punish her and her husband for exercising their First Amendment rights. Therefore, in my view, it is most likely the defendants will not be given immunity in Wilson’s civil suit.

That is what is putting a cloud over the Vice President and the White House – the evidence that they outed Plame to discredit Wilson’s presentation of proof that the White House had lied to get us into Iraq. That was an abuse of power and that abuse is the cloud over the Vice President and the White House.

[dansolo]

17. They must really be afraid that Libby will flip

The only reason that they would be willing to face the political firestorm that pardoning Libby so soon would cause is if they are really concerned that Libby is close to flipping and act as a witness against others (e.g. Cheney)