1115.org

Tony Snow this morning brought his own unique clarifying perspective to bear on President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence.

Here’s a quote-collage synopsis of Tony’s performance:
It’s correct that “politics did not play into this decision at all”. To “think of this as the bestowal of a favor is simply utterly to misconstrue the nature” of Bush’s decision. The president acted to “maintain the faith in the jury system” and “to put together what he thought was a just punishment in this case”. The president does not know if Libby “was in fact guilty of a crime” since “the president was not sitting in as a fact witness on a very long case”. This does not, apparently, interfere in the slightest with coming up with a just punishment in this case. Nor does it create the slightest need “to go back and consult members of the Justice Department about what the facts of the case are or the circumstances surrounding it.” Consequently, the president “has done what he thinks is appropriate to resolve this case”. And he did it by looking “at this one on its merits”. Having maintained “the faith in the jury system … by keeping intact the conviction and some of the punishments”, the president may indeed still pardon Libby down the road, thereby demolishing the conviction, and also the faith in the jury system that he worked so hard to maintain today.

Let it be said that, by all accounts, Tony Snow maintained a perfectly straight face throughout his briefing, even if he was unable to sustain any faith in the integrity of either the president or himself.

For some strange reason the White House web site is taking its own sweet time putting up a transcript of this morning’s press briefing. The collage above was assembled from quotes in Tim Grieve’s War Room post. I may add to it, if there are other nuggets in the original transcript.

@#$%* Update, 11:40 am @#$%*
No transcript yet, but here’s another gem-quote:

QUESTION: If there are more than 3,000 current petitions for commutation — not pardons, but commutation — in the federal system, under President Bush, will all 3,000 of those be held to the same standard that the president applied to Scooter Libby?

SNOW: I don’t know.

With all the non-stop criticism since yesterday about one system of justice for well-connected Republicans and another for the plebes, you’d think Tony might have mustered up an “Of course!”

@#$%* Update #2, 1 pm @#$%*

Okay, from the transcript now.

This first one goes out very especially for Matt:

Q Well, why no jail time, though?

MR. SNOW: I’m sorry, what?

Q The jail time issue — normally, somebody at least serves a day in jail, a week in jail, a month in jail.

MR. SNOW: Because the President thought the jail time, in fact, was inappropriate, and therefore, he decided to –

Q I thought he said the jail time was excessive, the sentence was excessive. He didn’t say it was inappropriate.

MR. SNOW: Right. No, he said it was excessive, and he thought that any jail time was excessive. And therefore, he did not see fit to have Scooter Libby taken to jail.

I particularly enjoyed this bit:

..he does think that it’s important to respect what the jury concluded, because the jury really is the group that counts here.

Q Why not respect what the judge said, then?

MR. SNOW: Well, keep in mind that there is still — he does respect what the judge said, but he also respects what — I think if you took a look at the trial record, at what the parole commission recommended, that what the parole commission recommended was highly consistent with what the President thought was an appropriate punishment here.

Q Well, no, they talked about 16-plus months.

MR. SNOW: No, that is — there’s a range of — what you’re taking a look — this gets very complicated.

Tony kept harping on one thing:

I will remind you that this is a guy, again, who has a felony conviction, a $250,000 fine, two years probation, and basically has lost the way he has built a living in his entire life. That is pretty significant punishment.

So just to set the record straight: he can still serve in the government with a felony conviction, his friends will pay the fine, two years probation is not exactly a biggie, and his friends will set him up with a nice little sinecure in a think-tank or something. And he won’t even have to f**k Paul Wolfowitz.

So, no, Tony. Just can the “pretty significant punishment” theme. It really ain’t going to fly. Amnesty is not pretty significant punishment.

@#$%* Update #3, 2 pm @#$%*

Many people are wondering just how many pardons/commutations Bush has granted during his presidency. Not that I have much respect for him, but this is the only number I’ve found, so here’s Jeff Toobin on last evening’s Situation Room:

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: That’s an understatement. I mean, this president has given fewer pardons than any president in recent history. Just 113 through six and a half years. I’m not sure how many commutations. The number may be zero.