Scooter commuter

Scooter Libby's sentence has been commuted. The jail time goes away, but he still has to pay a fine and go through probation. Bush is catching hell, because he's been so restrained in issuing pardons. Apparently, if you're a Republican, your past behavior is supposed to be a promise of future behavior, not an account against which you might be able to draw.

There are comments all over the place, of course. I'm listing a bunch from the Volokh Conspiracy.

Orin Kerr: Bush sets Libby Free

I find Bush's action very troubling because of the obvious special treatment Libby received. President Bush has set a remarkable record in the last 6+ years for essentially never exercising his powers to commute sentences or pardon those in jail. His handful of pardons have been almost all symbolic gestures involving cases decades old, sometimes for people who are long dead.

Thus, the "promise vs. account" theory.

Orin Kerr: "Politics" and the Libby Prosecution

...the claim, as I understand it, is that the Libby prosecution was the work of political enemies who were just trying to hurt the Bush Administration.

I find this claim bizarre. I'm open to arguments that parts of the case against Libby were unfair. But for the case to have been purely political, doesn't that require the involvement of someone who was not a Bush political appointee? Who are the political opponents who brought the case? Is the idea that Fitzgerald is secretly a Democratic party operative? That Judge Walton is a double agent? Or is the idea that Fitzgerald and Walton were hypnotized by "the Mainstream Media" like Raymond Shaw in the Manchurian Candidate? Seriously, I don't get it.

Orin Kerr: Why Didn't Fitzgerald Close Up Shop After Learning That Armitage Was the Leaker?

...you don't want to close up shop and then read in someone's memoirs ten years from now that the official (Armitage) was the fall guy who came up with the "accident" story to cover up something -- and that he got away with it because the naive prosecutor bought the story and closed the investigation without even verifying the facts.

Orin Kerr: President Bush Won't Rule Out Eventual Pardon For Libby

Orin Kerr:Judges Sentelle and Henderson Are Anti-Bush Hacks, Dersh Says