More trouble for the Law and Order-in-chief.
From Truthout:
Rep. Robert Wexler says President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence "is nothing short of (a) political quid pro quo, and Congress must go on record in strong opposition."
Wexler has drafted a resolution to censure Bush and plans to introduce it when Congress returns next Tuesday. A censure is a rare public reprimand but does not carry any other penalty.
House leaders could take the resolution directly to the floor, but that's unlikely. More likely is that the resolution will be sent to the House Judiciary Committee of which Wexler is a member. Since this is a "sense of the House" resolution, it would not require Senate approval.
Wexler said Bush's "intervention is an unconscionable abuse of authority by George W. Bush, and Congress must step forward and express the disgust that Americans rightfully feel toward this contemptible decision.
"Scooter Libby was found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice by a jury and was appropriately sentenced by a judge President Bush himself appointed. This deceitful chain of events began with the administration's falsifying of intelligence on Iraqi nuclear capabilities. It is clear that the perjury of Mr. Libby in this case effectively protected President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials from further scrutiny regarding the clear political retaliation against former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, a covert CIA agent."
The last president who was censured was James Buchanan in 1860, so the odds are pretty long against this one being adopted. Previous censured presidents were Andrew Jackson in 1834 and John Tyler in 1842. The House did not use the word "censure" in those instances, but its meaning was the same.
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