Unequal justice under the law

By Weekly Archive On Jul 12, 2007

According to The Washington Post, George Bush has been holding private sessions with historians and philosophers, seeking advice on how to save his legacy. Forget it, Mr. President. You've just destroyed it for good.

Just as Gerald Ford will be forever remembered as the president who pardoned Richard Nixon, George W. Bush will now be forever remembered as the president who let Scooter Libby scoot, without serving even one day in jail.

For anyone who believes in equal justice under the law, Scooter Libby's pardon (it's dishonest to call it anything else) is a moral outrage. Libby deliberately lied to FBI investigators about his, and Dick Cheney's, role in leaking the identity of undercover agent Valerie Plame. He also lied to the grand jury. He was convicted by a jury of perjury and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced by Judge Reggie Walton to 30 months in prison because, said the judge, top public officials have a "special obligation" to obey the law. Yet George Bush overruled both judge and jury.

Why? Out of pure political loyalty. In this case, equal justice was replaced by selective justice. Had Scooter Libby been a truck driver in Seattle, or a border patrol officer in Phoenix, Bush wouldn't have lifted a finger. But because he was the number two staffer in the White House, he got special treatment.

In fact, I'm convinced Libby was promised special treatment from the start. You don't need a Harvard law degree to conclude that Cheney told Libby: Whatever you do, don't tell them the truth about my role in this mess. Just lie through your teeth. And don't worry, I'll make sure you never go to prison.

Ironically, letting Scooter Libby off the hook contradicts both established penalties for obstruction of justice and the affirmed policies of the Bush Justice Department. Of 198 people convicted for obstructing justice in 2006, 154 were sentenced to an average term of six years — yet not one of those sentences did Bush consider "too severe." In fact, for the last six years, in hundreds of cases, Bush's Justice Department has consistently argued that federal sentencing guidelines must remain tough and inflexible.

Former baseball great Willie Mays Aikens, for example, has already served 144 months of a 248 month sentence for one offense of dealing crack cocaine. Hall of Famer Cal Ripken is one of many who have urged the Justice Department to acknowledge the excessive severity of Aikens' sentence and grant him clemency. The Bush administration refuses. Too bad Aikens never worked at the White House.

As disturbing as Bush's reckless use of his executive authority is, it comes as no surprise. Preferential treatment for Scooter Libby is just the latest lawless act by an outlaw administration. Add it up: stealing the election in Florida; rigging the courts in the Terri Schiavo case; tapping phones without a court order; torturing prisoners; refusing to release names of visitors to the vice president's mansion; using quickly discarded political e-mails for official government business; and firing U.S. attorneys because they refused to perform political dirty tricks. This gang doesn't hesitate to break or abuse the law. We've never seen so much corruption from one administration.

We've never seen so much hypocrisy, either. Those who demanded clemency for Scooter Libby are the same ones who wanted to hang Bill Clinton from the nearest tree. But Clinton was never charged with a crime, convicted by a jury, or sentenced by a judge. And there's a big difference between lying about consensual oral sex and lying about a matter of national security.

More recently, Libby's defenders were also the first to voice their moral outrage at the temporary release from jail of heiress Paris Hilton. There's only one difference: Paris went back to jail; Scooter never went at all.

Bill Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a new book, "How the Republicans Stole Religion." His email address is: bill@billpress.com. His Web site is: www.billpress.com.