scooter's commutation adios, rule of law

July 7, 2007 12:35 am


RICHMOND--Money talks, and everyone walks. Having tried--and failed--to give 12 million illegal immigrants amnesty for violating federal law, President George W. Bush took matters into his own hands this week. With a pen stroke, he gave amnesty to "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Both amnesty deals were premised on the same principle: The law's violator can make things right by paying a fine and playing be the rules going forward. For the illegals, a felonious violation of federal immigration law would cost a few thousand dollars to square things with Uncle Sam. As for Libby, the price of his felony--lying to federal investigators-- was a $250,000 fine. In all the 12,000,001 cases, no one would have to go to the penitentiary.

To be sure, the issues of amnesty for illegals and amnesty for Libby are fundamentally different on many levels. Yet not on perhaps the most basic: the rule of law.

Twelve million people--some estimate 20 million--remain in America after entering illegally. Federal law now prescribes a punishment for that crime. Bush says it is impractical--indeed, impossible--to track down and prosecute even a few million of this number and send them back to Mexico. So he would give millions of these illegals the chance to join U.S. society.

This equation--benefits beyond measure (they get to live in America, raising their kids as native citizens) by breaking the law--challenges core American values, including the belief that lawbreakers should be punished, not rewarded. But at least the Senate stopped Bush and like-minded leaders before they led us into a deeper immigration mess. The Libby matter is far different.

The president's power to commute a sentence cannot be blocked by Congress. A court could review the Libby matter should evidence point to the president's action being part of a criminal conspiracy. Yet even Bush's worst critics are not making that charge.

But having the right to do a thing doesn't make doing it right.

Bush says he acted because the 30-month sentence handed Libby was "excessive." Federal probation authorities, as Bush noted, recommended a lighter sentence. There were, and are, potentially mitigating factors. In my view, for example, the federal prosecutor targeted Libby after the politically ambitious gentleman realized he couldn't indict Karl Rove, much less Bush or Cheney. Libby was surely a scapegoat, although a voluntary one: He could have avoided prison by taking the Fifth Amendment and refusing to talk to federal authorities without a grant of full immunity. However, this would have required him to resign his position with Cheney.

So Scooter tried to scoot around the law, but got caught failing to tell the truth. His supporters are correct: This was a hollow case, at least as judged by facts exposed at the trial. How could it become political quicksand for Bush?

But it has. Bush is a president under political siege, a four-letter word not just in Democratic but increasingly in GOP circles. He is without power to persuade, bereft of any authority apart from his position. Granting amnesty to Libby is one of the few actions he could have taken without fear of its being overturned.

It is certain, however, that amnesty for Libby will be no more popular among the American people than amnesty for illegals. As Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed, the rule of law is the only border between us and the jungle. A jury convicted Libby of serious offenses. The prosecutor didn't make him lie. The 30-month sentence comports with federal sentencing guidelines approved by the Bush Justice Department. Thus, the president's justifications ring hollow.

Twelve million illegal immigrants are here because the federal government failed to protect our border. Amnesty couldn't fix that problem. Now another border has been breached with Bush's decision to rescue Libby. The damage done to the rule of law and to presidential credibility is considerable.

Libby got a break. But as for his fellow citizens, it has been one roll of snake eyes after another for many months. Like a Vegas gambler, Bush keeps doubling his bets. But in the end, it's the country that's left to pay the IOU.

Finally, we got a chance to see how a Bush amnesty plan would work. But it is hard to imagine the average law-abiding citizen accepting 12 million more of them.

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007 ... 007/297779