AlterNet: Bush Lets Libby Walk

AlterNet: Bush Lets Libby Walk: "Libby had become a symbol of the Bush White House's problem with the truth. After all, his lies had been designed to block FBI agents and federal prosecutors from learning the full truth of a White House effort to discredit a critic who had accused the Bush administration of twisting the prewar intelligence. And now the final act in the long-running CIA leak scandal -- Bush's commutation -- stands as another symbol of this grand theme: lying doesn't really bother this crowd.

In the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush claimed he would bring responsibility to the White House and, as a PR stunt, he dubbed his campaign jet Accountability One. Yet with this commutation, he takes the position that in his administration an aide who purposefully misleads government officials investigating a possible national security crime need not be held fully accountable."

Bush is the decider, and he has decided to let Libby go. Why did he not go all the way? He will still get huge amounts of criticism, he might as well have given Libby a full pardon. 30 months of jail was apparently too much time for a person who conspired to out a covert CIA agent, because her husband spoke against the war. This could have possibly endangered other operatives and national security as a whole. Then he proceeded to cover it up with lies. This is another shining example of how corrupt this administration is.