Go-go-Buchanan-broadside
Yeah, I got this from Sully but, man, does Buchanan nail Bush to the wall in this article. Sully already money-quoted the best bit, which won’t stop me doing the same, because as far as I’m concerned, Shame is a cowboy movie starring Alan Ladd:
Will the student deferments for these fellows never end?
The act reeks of cronyism. The perception is that Scooter Libby got preferential treatment, a get-out-of-jail-free card because he was chief of staff to Cheney and assistant to Bush.
That perception is correct.
Because of whom he knew, Scooter got preferential treatment, big-time. The Godfather took care of the consigliere.
Nothing new. After all, one recalls that the attorney who rustled up a pardon for Marc Rich from Bill Clinton was also a Beltway hustler by the name of Scooter Libby. The insiders take care of their own.
Just before that, though, and following some speculation as to Bush’s motive, is a paragraph on consequences (that is, I think, true whatever you think of Buchanan’s somewhat catty guesswork about motives):
Whatever the motives of President Bush, this was a radical not a conservative act. Whoever pressured Bush to wipe out Scooter’s sentence was more a friend of Scooter than a friend of Bush. For the president has damaged his reputation as a just ruler, so Scooter could elude what other men have to face.
That’s the truth. The perception that he was a just ruler is one of the few things that he had left. No more.