{"id":500,"date":"2007-07-03T17:29:19","date_gmt":"2007-07-04T00:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=500"},"modified":"2007-07-03T17:29:19","modified_gmt":"2007-07-04T00:29:19","slug":"strange-bedfellows-scooter-libby-and-marc-rich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=500","title":{"rendered":"Strange Bedfellows: Scooter Libby And Marc Rich"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence has rocked Washington and the rest of the nation. Everybody’s got something to bitch about. Democrats are incensed that the President exhibits such contempt for law and order. Republicans are inconsolable that Libby didn’t get a full pardon.<\/p>\n

One name keeps coming up as justification for Bush’s action. A name that, not surprisingly, seeks to refocus blame on the GOP’s favorite boogey man, Bill Clinton. It was Clinton that pardoned financier Marc Rich in a move that generated much controversy at the time. Republicans have jumped on that pardon in order to sanitize the President’s obvious special treatment of Libby.<\/p>\n

But guess what? Scooter Libby was Marc Rich’s lawyer<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Libby represented Rich at the time the pardon was considered and granted. Libby even defended Rich before Congress while Libby was serving as Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. Here is a bit of Libby’s testimony:<\/p>\n

“There are no facts that I know of that support the criminality of the client [Marc Rich] based on the tax returns.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“[Rich] had not violated the tax laws.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So when you hear Republicans drag out the canard that Clinton did it too (as if that would make it OK), remind them that the man who is the beneficiary of Bush’s commutation agrees with Clinton’s decision to pardon Rich.<\/p>\n

What’s more, the President does not agree with Clinton and said so at the time<\/a>:<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, on Marc Rich? First of all, I didn’t agree with the decision. I would not have made that decision myself.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nevertheless, the President did make that decision on behalf of Libby. And that’s not all. It seems that the prosecutor of Libby, Patrick Fitzgerald, also participated<\/a> in the prosecution of Rich. And if your head isn’t spinning at this point, you are on some pretty potent psychotropic medication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence has rocked Washington and the rest of the nation. Everybody’s got something to bitch about. Democrats are incensed that the President exhibits such contempt for law and order. Republicans are inconsolable that Libby didn’t get a full pardon. One name keeps coming up as justification for Bush’s action. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-scandalous"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-84","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":368,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=368","url_meta":{"origin":500,"position":0},"title":"The Scooter Libby-Ration Front","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/7\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The right-wing apologists in the press have launched a virtual Pardon-palooza on behalf of their favorite former hill staffer, Scooter Libby. You only have to read to the second paragraph of Howard Kurtz' column in the Washington Post to understand the level of criminality in the DC press corps: \"When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":499,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=499","url_meta":{"origin":500,"position":1},"title":"The Scooter Libby Fan Club","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/3\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Newspapers are spitting out editorials on the Bush commutation of Scooter Libby's jail sentence like bullets from an AK-47. Editor & Publisher has compiled a bunch already and there are a couple of strikingly notable standouts in the group. See if you can spot them: New York Times: \"...in this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":463,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=463","url_meta":{"origin":500,"position":2},"title":"Paris Hilton: Bustin’ Out","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/7\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's official! Justice in America has jumped the shark. Every prisoner with a rash should be paroled immediately. Every con who finds their cell too cold, or doesn't care for the food should be sent home. Anyone who still thinks there isn't a class division in legal matters should be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":367,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=367","url_meta":{"origin":500,"position":3},"title":"Scooter Libby Guilty – Except On Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/6\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It sure didn't take these guys long to construct their disinformation strategy. And you have to admire their chutzpah. Even while the Fox News Pundo-fascist talking blockheads make pseudo-lawyerly arguments demeaning the jury, the prosecutor, and the verdict, their manging editor, Droop Dawg Brit Hume floats above the real message\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=331","url_meta":{"origin":500,"position":4},"title":"Meet The (Message Control) Press","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/26\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The trial of Scooter Libby, for lying about outing an undercover CIA agent, has always promised to deliver long held secrets of intrigue and deceit from the White House. And with the participation of so many figures from the media (i.e. Judith Miller, Matt Cooper, Bob Novak, Tim Russert, etc.),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5","url_meta":{"origin":500,"position":5},"title":"Reporter Held in Contempt in CIA Leak Case","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/10\/2004","format":false,"excerpt":"As developments in the affair involving Amb. Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame proceed, a true media dilemna arises. Plame's identity as a CIA operative was alledgedly disclosed to the media by White House staffers and an independant counsel has been appointed to determine how this came about and if any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}