Obama’s statement and commentary by Andrew Sullivan capture my thinking pretty well.

Here’s a summary of the president’s thinking about excessive punishment while he was governor of Texas from Bob Cesca at HuffPost:

What’s excessive? President Bush, who suddenly hates excessive punishments, once refused to commute the death sentence of a 33-year-old mentally retarded black man with an IQ of around 60 and the functional skills of a 7-year-old boy.

10 years ago last May, President Bush and Alberto Gonzales received a request for clemency on the day Terry Washington was to be executed for killing a college student in 1987. President Bush skimmed Gonzales’ incomplete summary and denied clemency.

Terry Washington was dead before the sun went down.

Regarding the record 152 executions during his two terms as governor, Bush “wrote” in his autobiography, A Charge To Keep, “I don’t believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own.”

This is the statement of Libby’s prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald:

We fully recognize that the Constitution provides that commutation decisions are a  matter of presidential prerogative and we do not comment on the exercise of that prerogative.  

We comment only on the statement in which the President termed the sentence imposed by the judge as “excessive.”   The sentence in this case was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country.  In this case, an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws.  It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals.  That principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing.

Although the President’s decision eliminates Mr. Libby’s sentence of imprisonment, Mr. Libby remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process.

Here’s a slice of the Department of Justice Manual on commuting sentences:

Section 1-2.113 Standards for Considering Commutation Petitions

A commutation of sentence reduces the period of incarceration; it does not imply forgiveness of the underlying offense, but simply remits a portion of the punishment. It has no effect upon the underlying conviction and does not necessarily reflect upon the fairness of the sentence originally imposed. Requests for commutation generally are not accepted unless and until a person has begun serving that sentence. Nor are commutation requests generally accepted from persons who are presently challenging their convictions or sentences through appeal or other court proceeding. (Emphasis by blogblah!!!)

If I understand correctly, the president did NOT “vet” this through any attorneys nor in any other way go through normal channels.  It was a decision on his own, except one imagines that he was helped by the Vice President, who has a certain reputation for going around the normal channels.

A Bush appointee named a Bush appointed federal prosecutor as special prosecutor to try this case before a Bush appointed judge.  These are the same crimes they used to impeach Clinton and which resulted in the resignation of President Nixon.  The Bush appointed judge imposed a sentence — strictly between the judicial sentencing guidelines provided by Congress, a Republican effort to rein in “activist” judges and curb illegal drugs — he called based on “overwhelming” evidence of an attempt to cover up the exposure of a CIA agent.  Are we supposed to really believe that Scooter was prosecuted and sentenced to prison as part of a conspiracy of liberals who wish to do Bush harm?

And, by the way, by commuting instead of pardoning, Libby retains a 5th Amendment right to keep his mouth shuts about what he knows (he would not have been capable of incriminating himself if pardoned) all the while with his case up on appeal.

But, what the hell?  He’s down to 27% in the polls.  How much worse can it get?  He’s done it because he can and no one can stop him.  If we don’t like it, so what?

blogblah!!!