I was in Chicago this past weekend, working with Kurt and seeing friends. I hardly had time to read the news, so I was surprised and angered when I heard that our president pardoned one of his cronies.
Reminded me of Ford pardoning Nixon, just didn’t seem right.
Then this nugget appeared on my laptop via an email from Dad. It’s a non-partisan look at Bush’s history combined with our nation’s history. And to me, it resonates deep.
Bush should resign, but he’s not man enough. “Man up”, Bushy, do the right thing.
Minor nit: He didn’t pardon him. He commuted his sentence so he won’t serve jail time, the (publicly offered) reasoning being that “the sentence was excessive.” Yet keeping US citizens _suspected_ of crimes (as opposed to a convicted felon like Libby) locked away for 5+ years neither granting them access to legal representation, nor charging them with a crime, is A-OK.
I thought it was interesting what the video above said about Nixon. Nixon, in the end, resigned to save the country the humiliation of a President impeached. At the end of the day, he “manned up,” as you suggested, and did the right thing — he walked away in disgrace. His resignation didn’t make him any better a person, but he showed that he at least had a shred of respect left for the Republic. When I think of it that way, Ford’s pardon is easier to stomach.
The Libby commutation, by contrast, is simply as case of a corrupt administration rewarding one of its own for perjuring himself in the interest of protecting the power of their cabal. That’s what makes the Libby situation EVEN WORSE than what Ford/Nixon did.
Ah yes, you’re right. Poor word choice on my end.
The whole thing sickens me. I find it fairly apropros that my dad sent this to me on Independence Day.
What’s even worse is that it happened before the appeals process, so Bush just took it upon himself to be the judge.
Shouldn’t you be planning a wedding?