If Bush pardons Scooter Libby, it will be as if to say, "Thank you, Scooter, for doing my administration's bidding in covering up the circumstances of our outing of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who was working out there on America's side. I am not on America's side by pardoning you for participating in outright lies about the CIA agent outing. Instead I'm showing that I'm on the extreme partisans' side."
If Bush fails to pardon Libby, it will anger and alienate the 20-something percent of that new brand of Republicans who prize loyalty and protection of a President who embraces their divisive and extreme ideology over punishing those who participate in what what looks like treason or something dangerously bordering upon treason.
To a typical American, whether Republican or Democrat, who believes that intelligent patriotism still fosters a spirit that supports a healthy democracy, truth, and respect and reasonable protection for all Americans who do dangerous and important work on behalf of our national security while under cover, it looks like Bush loses.
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3 comments:
Bush doesn't care about public opinion and he doesn't care about the affects of anything he does, as long as oil is in his pocket.
I think the politics of a Libby pardon, have less to do with winning elections than for certain higher-level White House officials to avoid conviction and prosecution themselves. It was George senior who pardonned the principals in Iran-Contra, when he himself was one of the principals in the adventure.
I think that is true, Jude, but we liberals will see it that way in a stark and clear way. How will it be spun to the people in the middle? [Or has rove-run politics evacuated the middle?]
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