Outrageous Bush-Justice

The German press has picked up on the latest outrage of President Bush:

"Lewis Libby, früherer Stabschef des amerikanischen Vizepräsidenten Dick Cheney, muss nach einer Intervention von Präsident George W. Bush nicht ins Gefängnis. Libby war Anfang Juni wegen Meineids, Falschaussage und Rechtsbehinderung zu 30 Monaten Haft und einer Geldstrafe in Höhe von 250.000 Dollar (185.000 Euro) verurteilt worden. Bush teilte am Montag mit, er habe die Haft nun aufgehoben, weil das Strafmaß „übertrieben“ sei. Die Geldstrafe und eine Bewährungsfrist von zwei Jahren blieben aber."

The FAZ and the FT Deutschland got the facts right.  However, I have also seen many headlines like this one in the usually very reliable NZZ: "Bush begnadigt Cheneys früheren Stabschef Libby".  Begnadigung is pardon, but President Bush did not pardon Libby; rather, he commuted his prison sentence that was confirmed by the court. As Josh Marshall points out, a commutation is much more damaging than a pardon:

The deeper offense is that the president has used his pardon power to shortcircuit the investigation of a crime to which he himself was quite likely a party, and to which, his vice president, who controls him, certainly was.

But President Bush is a compassionate man: sending Scooter Libby to prison was in his view "excessive".  Let us revisit a case where Bush was not so compassionate; and apparently he did not find the sentence – death – excessive.  I’m referring to the 1998 execution of Karla Faye Tucker, when then Governor Bush rejected a plea of clemency – and appeals from hundreds of people, including Pope John Paul II, to spare the woman’s life.

"Bush was receiving thousands of messages urging clemency for Tucker, including one from one of his daughters. "Born-again" evangelists such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, normally ardent advocates of execution, urged him to commute Tucker’s sentence. When Pope John Paul II urged Bush to grant mercy to Tucker, Bush responded disingenuously in a letter to the Pope, saying, "Ms. Tucker’s sentence can only be commuted by the Governor if the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends a commutation of sentence." On several occasions, Bush stated publicly that in deciding Karla Faye Tucker’s fate, he was seeking "guidance through prayer," adding that "judgments about the heart and soul of an individual on death row are best left to a higher authority."

Bush later mocked Karla Faye Tucker’s plea for him to spare her life:

"Please," Bush whimpered, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "please, don’t kill me."

Of course Karla Faye Tucker was just a poor woman  in prison – one of 152 prisoners Bush executed while Governor of Texas.  She had no political power. Scooter Libby, on the other hand, was a powerful political operative who did his part in the massive deception that was behind the 2003 Iraq invasion. No wonder President Bush was compelled to be compassionate.