Judge Walton: Bush’s commutation of Libby sentence creates impression of unequal justice.

[laststeamtrain]

Judge Walton: Bush’s commutation of Libby sentence creates impression of unequal justice.»

U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Scooter Libby to 2.5 years in prison after a jury convicted the former White House staffer of lying to federal prosecutors and impeding an investigation into leak of a former CIA agent’s identity. Walton’s sentence was overturned by President Bush’s commutation order last July. In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Walton said that, while he respected the president’s authority to issue the commutation, Bush’s actions create an impression of unequal justice under the law:..http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/30/judge-walton-bush%e2%80%99s-commutation-of-libby-sentence-creates-impression-of-unequal-justice/

[bbgrunt]

1. doh!!

[whistle]

2. Not just an impression, but an outright fact!

[Deep13]

4. beat me to it! nt

[whistle]

5. It's okay shout it out loud and often Libby's pardon was Bush playing favorites

...and in fact a sunshine example of cronyism!

[Supersedeas]

6. it was a direct slap in the face to the Judicial Branch -- Roberts, Thomas, Scalia, Alito, and

Kennedy must just get a kick out of their trivial marginalized place in national government.

[Deep13]

3. No, it creates a reality of unequal justice. nt

[Gold Metal Flake]

7. No, it *relects* a reality of unequal justice.

As an associated comment, remember this?

"IN 2004 a senior, unnamed aide to the Bush Administration told the New York Times writer Ron Suskind that guys such as Suskind were "in what we call the reality-based community". The aide defined this as comprising people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality".

"That's not the way the world really works any more," the aide continued. "We are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you are studying reality judiciously, as you will, we'll act again, creating new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We are history's actors, and you, all of you, will be left to study what we do."

[malaise]

8. Notion??

Spare me Judge Walton.

[barbtries]

9. an impression?!

:rofl:

gimme a fuckin break. justice is a joke to the bushies.

[crimsonblue]

10. Silly Judge Watson..

He implies there is even justice these days. Duh, didn't he know that Bush crossed out those lines of the Constitution?

[Jacobin]

11. He's completely missed the mark

By commuting the sentence, it kept Libby from ratting out Cheney, Rove and Bush. If he had been sentenced to prison and had to report, he was going to sing.

The commutation saved the administration's ass from criminal convictions or impeachment.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

12. BINGO, REPUBLICANS ARE A DISEASE