The 95-pound weakling - Bush II shows his lack of muscle
Sean Scallon
July 09, 2007
I don’t know about you, but if I was the President and any man asking for a pardon for one of his buddies started questioning my integrity and my decency in the pages of his magazine, I would make sure that person served the maximum time of his sentence. Especially when this magazine editor supported me in the past, influenced me to carry out his favorite policies and said nice things about me before sticking a knife into my back just get one of friends out of jail.
Yep, any disloyal backstabbing weasel that did that to me, if I were President, I tell them to go to hell after taking a running leap.
Alas, George Bush II’s loyalty worked in the opposite direction in commuting the prison sentence of one Irving Lewis Lebowitz, better known to the world as “Scooter” Libby. Instead of standing up to the strong pressure Libby’s fellow neoconservatives were putting on him to grant a pardon, including the aforementioned insults coming from William Kristol’s Weekly Standard, the “Dedcider” showed himself to be not just a lame-duck, but a 95-pound weakling after being bullied by Kristol and the neocons.
Actually, it wasn’t just the neocons who were kicking sand in Bush II’s face. Also intimidating him was none other than his own vice-president, Dick Cheney. Now here was someone you just couldn’t tell to go to hell, right? After all, Cheney had been basically serving as a super chief-of-staff to the President since 2001, leaving the actual chiefs-of-staff, Andrew Card and Joshua Bolton, as mere ciphers. The last thing Bush II wanted would be a full and open break with Cheney over Libby’s 30-month jail sentence.
But why not? He’s the President right, not Cheney (or so it would appear). He’s the “Decider.” If Cheney had insisted upon getting a pardon for his old buddy “Scooter”, would this not have been a good time to get Cheney’s resignation, end what’s becoming more and more serious impeachment talk and fill the post with someone who could unite the Republican Party around his candidacy to be Bush II’s successor? According to Sally Quinn of the Washington Post, more and more Republicans are talking about this scenario all the time.
But instead of a bold move that could have changed the entire electoral landscape, Bush II meekly acquiesced. So weak was he that he couldn’t even bring himself to giving Libby a full pardon (although that may come later), just commute his prison sentence for being, as he termed, “excessive.”
Of course nobody believes this because this is the same man who rarely gave pardons or clemencies while as governor of Texas and as President and made sure a woman named Karla Faye Tucker met her fate on Texas’ death row. Maybe if she was a member of “Team 100” or the “Pioneers” fund-raising group, or took a class taught by Leo Strauss, she might have gotten off. Bush II had strict standards when it came to even studying the possibility of granting pardons, but those went out the window as soon as Libby faced doing time, even in a “Club Fed” prison. Bush II thinks a fine, probation and bad publicity is enough punishment for old “Scooter”. Of course, that fine will be paid by Libby’s legal defense fund, its doubtful Libby will have to wear an ankle-monitoring bracelet and as for a tarnished reputation, well that’s in the eye of the beholder. Elliot Abrams supposedly has a tarnished reputation after being convicted of crimes during the Iran-Contra scandal and yet that didn’t stop Dick Cheney from getting the neocon an appointment to the State Department. No doubt Libby could easily find his way back into government service under the next Republican administration.
That could be a long-time coming however, thanks to Bush II’s weakness. Instead of standing up to the people who have led him astray time and time again, they’ve once again have pushed him around into doing what they’ve wanted him to do. Instead of Libby, it is he who’s become the prison bitch.
Sean Scallon is a freelance writer and journalist living in Arkansaw, Wisconsin.
Yep, any disloyal backstabbing weasel that did that to me, if I were President, I tell them to go to hell after taking a running leap.
Alas, George Bush II’s loyalty worked in the opposite direction in commuting the prison sentence of one Irving Lewis Lebowitz, better known to the world as “Scooter” Libby. Instead of standing up to the strong pressure Libby’s fellow neoconservatives were putting on him to grant a pardon, including the aforementioned insults coming from William Kristol’s Weekly Standard, the “Dedcider” showed himself to be not just a lame-duck, but a 95-pound weakling after being bullied by Kristol and the neocons.
Actually, it wasn’t just the neocons who were kicking sand in Bush II’s face. Also intimidating him was none other than his own vice-president, Dick Cheney. Now here was someone you just couldn’t tell to go to hell, right? After all, Cheney had been basically serving as a super chief-of-staff to the President since 2001, leaving the actual chiefs-of-staff, Andrew Card and Joshua Bolton, as mere ciphers. The last thing Bush II wanted would be a full and open break with Cheney over Libby’s 30-month jail sentence.
But why not? He’s the President right, not Cheney (or so it would appear). He’s the “Decider.” If Cheney had insisted upon getting a pardon for his old buddy “Scooter”, would this not have been a good time to get Cheney’s resignation, end what’s becoming more and more serious impeachment talk and fill the post with someone who could unite the Republican Party around his candidacy to be Bush II’s successor? According to Sally Quinn of the Washington Post, more and more Republicans are talking about this scenario all the time.
But instead of a bold move that could have changed the entire electoral landscape, Bush II meekly acquiesced. So weak was he that he couldn’t even bring himself to giving Libby a full pardon (although that may come later), just commute his prison sentence for being, as he termed, “excessive.”
Of course nobody believes this because this is the same man who rarely gave pardons or clemencies while as governor of Texas and as President and made sure a woman named Karla Faye Tucker met her fate on Texas’ death row. Maybe if she was a member of “Team 100” or the “Pioneers” fund-raising group, or took a class taught by Leo Strauss, she might have gotten off. Bush II had strict standards when it came to even studying the possibility of granting pardons, but those went out the window as soon as Libby faced doing time, even in a “Club Fed” prison. Bush II thinks a fine, probation and bad publicity is enough punishment for old “Scooter”. Of course, that fine will be paid by Libby’s legal defense fund, its doubtful Libby will have to wear an ankle-monitoring bracelet and as for a tarnished reputation, well that’s in the eye of the beholder. Elliot Abrams supposedly has a tarnished reputation after being convicted of crimes during the Iran-Contra scandal and yet that didn’t stop Dick Cheney from getting the neocon an appointment to the State Department. No doubt Libby could easily find his way back into government service under the next Republican administration.
That could be a long-time coming however, thanks to Bush II’s weakness. Instead of standing up to the people who have led him astray time and time again, they’ve once again have pushed him around into doing what they’ve wanted him to do. Instead of Libby, it is he who’s become the prison bitch.
Sean Scallon is a freelance writer and journalist living in Arkansaw, Wisconsin.
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