Will Bush Pardon Libby if Appeal Fails?

[Ivan Seeking]

If the appeal fails, will he be pardoned?

Absolutely. Bush has no respect for his party or the law.

 

[turbo]

How about another option? "Absolutely, but not until after the 2008 elections, when his pardon will not have any short-term repercussions to the Republican Party." This is the most likely option, IMO.

 

[devil-fire]

i duno, i can't see the plus side for bush to pardon Libby in this case.

bush giving Libby a pardon will do political damage to bush and everyone who looks like him (most of the people who are likely to have anything to do with him after his presidency, if that matters) and the only plus side to giving Libby a pardon is what?... helping his friends out? naaah, bush has no non-political attachment to Libby at all.

i think Libby is a sacrificial anode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrificial_anode) used by bush. bush has no interest in Libbey's carrier. you guys are giving bush too much moral credit.

 

[BobG]

i duno, i can't see the plus side for bush to pardon Libby in this case.

It may seem like a small percentage of people that would react to a Libby pardon positively, but Bush is down so far in polls a Libby pardon would probably improve his popularity.

More importantly, pardoning Libby won't have much of a negative side to it. Bush has dropped to a point that things like pardoning Libby, refusing to fire Gonzalez, etc can't really help or hurt him, just as things like the economy aren't going to help or hurt him. His numbers are going to follow Iraq.

Waiting until after the 2008 election would be preferable, but a pardon this summer would probably be the next best option. Bush doesn't want to be pardoning Libby in the middle of the election season (every Republican candidate in the nation would hate him).

 

[Astronuc]

I picked "Don't know", but I'm leaning toward yes - at some point.

I agree with BobG's assessment that a pardon for Libby won't hurt Bush, who has basically polarized the public's opinion about himself.

 

[devil-fire]

i don't think pardoning libby would cause much trouble for bush but i don't see what good it would do for him either.

surely it is an exaggeration to say it might increase his popularity...i hope

 

[Mallignamius]

Well, Yahoo news reported that he commuted his sentence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070702/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_leak_trial

 

[jaap de vries]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/02/libby.sentence/index.html"
There is your anwser!

 

[Mallignamius]

Uh, thank you, jaap.

 

[turbo]

Well, Yahoo news reported that he commuted his sentence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070702/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_leak_trial

And you can bet he will also issue Libby a full and unconditional pardon, so Libby can resume his law practice, but not until after the '08 election. This will keep Libby from talking to prosecutors, the press, or Congress about Rove/Cheney's roles in Plame's outing.

 

[Anttech]

Can I vote now?