"The Most Insidious of Traitors"

I happened across* this quote from the first President Bush. I looked it up. Sure enough, it's right there on the CIA website:

Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.

-President George Bush, Sr.

And now Shrub has given a "get out of jail free card" to a man who tried to cover up the administration exposing of, not just a source, but an actual CIA agent. That must be galling to the old CIA director, Bush, Sr.

(l-r) Bush, Libby, Cheney

I continue to believe that George, Sr., in his heart of hearts, must ache for the damage his son has done to the country and to his name.

BTW: It's also interesting to see him thanking Senator Kerry in this speech from 1999.

* Here is where I found the Bush, Sr. quote. This post and the comments to it are an interesting discussion of the Libby commutation scandal.

Check out this old pressed leaf from the Limb:
April 2006 - A Disastrous Presidency

Obstruction of Justice

I agree with Joe Wilson:

"By commuting [Libby's] sentence, [President Bush] has brought himself and his office into reasonable suspicion of participation in an obstruction of justice. The commutation of [Libby's] sentence in and of itself is participation in obstruction of justice."

Law-and-Order Bush, who set records frying criminals in Texas, thinks little Scooter was harshly treated. He doesn't pardon ol'Scooter though -- uhn-uhn!-- then Scooter wouldn't be able to plead the fifth before Congress or courts. George and Dick need Scooter to stay quiet.

By the way, my Bush-supporting readers, don't call this a liberal conspiracy - Libby was prosecuted, judged, and sentenced by Republicans.

And now we will hear from other Republicans, all the vicious crew who wanted Clinton's head for his lies about personal behavior, I 'spect their tune will have changed.

Remember what this was all about: The White House was busy, not finding solutions to the results of their terrible mistakes, but instead were spending tremendous effort covering up their misdeeds by trying to discredit the truthtellers like Joe Wilson.

Yes, obstruction of justice.

7/3 note: Tony Snow made it plain this morning that a pardon is still an option! I am more certain than ever that the motivation of a commutation from this corrupt President is to give Scooter cover to keep quiet. As his buddies on the Supreme Court exhibited in 2000, Bush has once again shown that oft-stated, long-held, rock-hard Republican principles melt quickly when their power is threatened.

Lies

Tom Hilton at If I Ran the Zoo has performed a valuable service for those who haven't been paying attention. He has published a chart to distinquish the lies of Scooter Libby from the famous lie of Bill Clinton.

The most telling thing about the Libby case is that it left no reasonable doubt that the priorities of the Republican administration were not winning the war in Iraq, securing Afghanistan, protecting New Orleans, taking care of our wounded troops, finding OBL, etc., etc., etc. Bush, Rove, Libby, Cheney and company were instead concentrating their considerable talents on smearing their political enemies and covering their tracks on the hyping of the war.