Here’s the meat of Tony Snow’s presentation of Bush’s decision to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence to one without jail time. Snow was eager to portray the decision as a “principled” one — “the president does not look upon this as granting a favor to anyone.”
“You need to respect the jury system,” Snow said, and “it is important to make clear our faith in what really is a pillar of the American justice system, which is everybodyâs right to be tried before a jury of our peers.â What about that other pillar of our justice system, the judiciary? Well, not so much.
More from his comments:
The key considerations were… letâs figure out what we think is appropriate, what he thinks is appropriate in terms of punishment and letâs also do it in a way that does not do violence, but in fact shows respect to a system of justice… not going in and overthrowing the hard work and the verdict of a duly constituted jury. That, to me, demonstrates just the opposite of political consideration….
