PARDON THIS: AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT CHENEY AND THE GOP

wArSHINtUhN--Please-please-please pardon I. Lewis "Scooter" (a dumb nickname, incidentally) Libby, President George W. Cheney. We on-the-Left all want you to do this, blowing what's left of your foot (credibility) off. Now, your future-replacements (get real) in the GOP want to do the same: Giuliani--when not being interrupted by God via lightning-strikes--has said he would, and so has Mitt "the Twit" Romney and the execrable Fred Thompson who populates Libby's legal defense fund. It's a shoe-in that McCain would too, since he also values his own party's interests above those of the nation, he's in good company in the GOP on that one.

But seriously, if the GOP wants its name to be mud for around 30 years, then please, please pardon Libby from serving a paltry 30 months. What a wimp. You break-the-law, and you pay. I guess it just doesn't seem so simple in those corridors of power and influence, eh? If the GOP wants to self-destruct, we should by-all-means allow them to do so, shouldn't we? Unsurprisingly, the issue of a pardon is not allowable conversation in the Oval Office, the president gets angry and upset when it's mentioned. There's leakers everywhere in the bureaucracy these days:

The prospect of a pardon has become so sensitive inside the West Wing that top aides have been kept out of the loop, and even Bush friends have been told not to bring it up with the president. In any debate, officials expect Vice President Cheney to favor a pardon, while other aides worry about the political consequences of stepping into a case that stems from the origins of the Iraq war and renewing questions about the truthfulness of the Bush administration. Libby yesterday put President Bush in the position of making a decision he has tried to avoid for months: Trigger a fresh political storm by pardoning a convicted perjurer or let one of the early architects of his administration head to prison. (Washington Post, 06.06.2007)

Yes, he might talk. He might tell federal investigators everything if he isn't pardoned. But if he's pardoned, it will do incredible harm to the image of the GOP, doing a double-whammy on presidential aspirants who also support the president's failed war in Iraq. It's just another situation where the Bush administration and the GOP have cornered themselves, as the self-destructive are wont to do.

A whole gaggle of Republican incumbents still want to disregard the 2006 midterms, but they know they're going to try to steal yet another election by disenfranchising Black Americans (including veterans), and the homeless. What makes the Democrats smarter is that they understand the dynamic of the public mood better, and they know when it's time to service it. Republicans understand it, but choose to ignore it--they do so at their peril, which is fine.

A pardon won't wash with the majority of the public, and it can be expected to stimulate more people towards voting as a form of vengeance. That's what the 2006 elections were all about, after all. It's strange to watch people who are so out-of-touch with the public that they keep cheerleading the former-cheerleader who is so obviously incompetent and corrupt. But then, so are they. So please, pardon I. Lewis Libby, President Bush. Please. We're begging you to destroy the last-shreds of your credibility with those who have been stupid enough to believe you and the GOP ever had any.

The Washington Post today: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/05/AR2007060501275.html