“I have made my own evaluation. In preparing for the decision I am announcing today, I have carefully weighed,” he says, after giving his views of the competing positions taken. “I have concluded,” he says, and “It is my judgment,” he says.

It’s surreal. Like the codpiece strutting on a flight deck, here he dons the magisterial robes of a judge and employs the rhetorical flourishes of a court announcing a decision — deliberative, judicious, reasoned, weighing the options.

How many people is he fooling?

This whole sorry pattern began with Gerald Ford’s pardon of Nixon. Recent commentary has been that the legal investigations of Nixon were requiring so many responses to requests for information that Ford issued the pardon in substantial part to allow the WH to get on with the business of (mis)governing the country.

Also of note: Who was Ford’s chief of staff, who would have been the one who told Ford that the investigative requests were too burdensome? I can’t recall whether it was Cheney or Rumsfeld….

The paeans to Ford’s pardon of Nixon in the Ford obits were just so much horse manure! That pardon has legitimated a series of pardons that have blocked real accountability for the crimes of high-ranking Republicans. These were crimes against democratic control of government, in each instance.

I believe that this great nation would have been spared the last quarter century of conservative misgovernment if Nixon — and the subsequent criminals, including Bush I — had been held accountable through the criminal process.

Admiral Komack @ 187

OK, Bush has thumbed his nose at the rule of law.

What are the Democrats going to do about it?

Leahy, Waxman, Conyers, Reid and Pelosi will write strongly worded letters. Their forte.

Yup. That’s all they’re going to do because according to Nancy, It’s not worth it.

OK, Bush has thumbed his nose at the rule of law.

What are the Democrats going to do about it?

Leahy, Waxman, Conyers, Reid and Pelosi will write strongly worded letters. Their forte.

Here’s the real core of Bush’s statement:

I have said throughout this process that it would not be appropriate to comment or intervene in this case until Mr. Libby’s appeals have been exhausted. But with the denial of bail being upheld and incarceration imminent, I believe it is now important to react to that decision.

Shorter Bush: I thought I could wait, but I can’t. Scooter will talk if he’s going to prison. So — he’s not.

Also:

Others point out that a jury of citizens weighed all the evidence and listened to all the testimony and found Mr. Libby guilty of perjury and obstructing justice. They argue, correctly, that our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable. They say that had Mr. Libby only told the truth, he would have never been indicted in the first place.

Very sweet downgrade from “obstructing justice” to “not telling the truth” — which are, actually, different even though Irve was convicted of both.

Even shorter Bush Fuck you, I’m the DECIDER!

FYI. Cassie just sent a letter to Bush asking why Scooter deserves a commuted sentence while her mom sits in jail for 9 yrs. Letter is here.

Sweet darling. Breaks my heart.

I served in the U.S. Air Force Security Service years ago, top-secret clearance, reporting to DIRNSA (Director, NSA), and saw a whole lot of top-secret materials while serving overseas during the Vietnam War.

If I’d disclosed the identity of a covert CIA agent, blowing her cover and her front-company cover, leading to the outing of a whole slew of other covert CIA agents and their contacts (besides endangering their families), I’d have either been shot by a firing squad or would still be serving time in Leavenworth.

But Scooter skates, after participating in a major national security breach, causing irreparable damage to our country.

He lied and obstructed justice to hide the criminal conspiracy that originated in the inner, corrupt bowels of the White House, attempting to cover for his criminal co-conspirators, like Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, George W. Bush, David Addington, Ari Fleischer, and a whole lot of other Republicans in the White House who participated in this criminal act.

Of course, Bush will pardon Scooter after the November 2008 elections, along with a whole lot of rotten Republican officials in his administration. These will be preemptive pardons, kind of like the corrupt Republican governor of Kentucky did several years ago.

And this will be the ultimate Bush legacy…getting his name into the Guinness Book of Records for having pardoned more people than any previous president, serving as a testament to how much corruption there actually is in the Bush mal-administration.

What are the Democrats going to do about it?