Frank Rich: A Profile in Cowardice
from New York Times
There was never any question that President Bush would grant amnesty to Scooter Libby, the man who knows too much about the lies told to sell the war in Iraq. The only questions were when, and how, Mr. Bush would buy Mr. Libby’s silence. Now we have the answers, and they’re at least as incriminating as the act itself. They reveal the continued ferocity of a White House cover-up and expose the true character of a commander in chief whose tough-guy shtick can no longer camouflage his fundamental cowardice.
The timing of the president’s Libby intervention was a surprise. Many assumed he would mimic the sleazy 11th-hour examples of most recent vintage: his father’s pardon of six Iran-contra defendants who might have dragged him into that scandal, and Bill Clinton’s pardon of the tax fugitive Marc Rich, the former husband of a major campaign contributor and the former client of none other than the ubiquitous Mr. Libby.
But the ever-impetuous current President Bush acted 18 months before his scheduled eviction from the White House. Even more surprising, he did so when the Titanic that is his presidency had just hit two fresh icebergs, the demise of the immigration bill and the growing revolt of Republican senators against his strategy in Iraq.
That Mr. Bush, already suffering historically low approval ratings, would invite another hit has been attributed in Washington to his desire to placate what remains of his base. By this logic, he had nothing left to lose. He didn’t care if he looked like an utter hypocrite, giving his crony a freer ride than Paris Hilton and violating the white-collar sentencing guidelines set by his own administration. He had to throw a bone to the last grumpy old white guys watching Bill O’Reilly in a bunker.
(The rest is here.)
There was never any question that President Bush would grant amnesty to Scooter Libby, the man who knows too much about the lies told to sell the war in Iraq. The only questions were when, and how, Mr. Bush would buy Mr. Libby’s silence. Now we have the answers, and they’re at least as incriminating as the act itself. They reveal the continued ferocity of a White House cover-up and expose the true character of a commander in chief whose tough-guy shtick can no longer camouflage his fundamental cowardice.
The timing of the president’s Libby intervention was a surprise. Many assumed he would mimic the sleazy 11th-hour examples of most recent vintage: his father’s pardon of six Iran-contra defendants who might have dragged him into that scandal, and Bill Clinton’s pardon of the tax fugitive Marc Rich, the former husband of a major campaign contributor and the former client of none other than the ubiquitous Mr. Libby.
But the ever-impetuous current President Bush acted 18 months before his scheduled eviction from the White House. Even more surprising, he did so when the Titanic that is his presidency had just hit two fresh icebergs, the demise of the immigration bill and the growing revolt of Republican senators against his strategy in Iraq.
That Mr. Bush, already suffering historically low approval ratings, would invite another hit has been attributed in Washington to his desire to placate what remains of his base. By this logic, he had nothing left to lose. He didn’t care if he looked like an utter hypocrite, giving his crony a freer ride than Paris Hilton and violating the white-collar sentencing guidelines set by his own administration. He had to throw a bone to the last grumpy old white guys watching Bill O’Reilly in a bunker.
(The rest is here.)
Labels: Bush, corruption, Iraq, White House
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1 Comments:
Motivated by a reference in a Frank Rich column last month, I read Richard Nixon’s book, Victory Without War. The book was published in 1988, so he is writing his views long after his presidency was over.
In a discussion of secrecy, Nixon writes : In the long term, we must cultivate among the American people the attitude that those who leak secrets should be discharged in disgrace …
Although some have commented that Richard Armitage may have been the first to divulge the Plame CIA connection, he was not the only one. Bush has stated that he agrees with Libby’s perjury conviction, but not the sentence. Following Nixon’s criteria, Bush should have discharged Libby as well as Rove. Pretty sad when the Bush presidency cannot even meet Nixon's standards.
SUGGESTED VOX VERAX READING : Jeremy Mayer writes in The Politico of the need for a constitutional amendment eliminating the power of the president to pardon himself, the vice president and any political appointee for official acts committed during his term in office.
It’s a great suggestion since it still only restricts action on the current administration but still empowers a President to pardon others from prior administrations -- such as Reagan’s Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams who George H. W. Bush issued pardons (prior to trial) for charges related to the Iran-Contra incident.
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