Why Bush Will Pardon Libby If He Has To

Here's the last half of a BuzzFlash editorial

Last week, Bush himself was asked about the possibility of a Libby pardon were Libby to be convicted, and Bush indicated that he wouldn't answer such a question.

What the White House is going to do is wait and hope that the D.C. Court of Appeals, on which the infamous partisan Federal Judge David Sentelle sits, will save them from the issue of a pardon by overturning Libby's conviction on some technicality.

Sentelle has an interesting history in this area. He was one of the judges who overturned the Iran-Contra felony convictions of Oliver North and John Poindexter on a technicality.

We have written about Sentelle several times. Not only is he a right winger who believes that there is a liberal conspiracy to destroy America, he is the one that appointed Ken Starr as the Clinton Special Prosecutor after Jesse Helms and another Neo-Confederacy senator told him to. Sentelle is a partisan GOP judicial operative, who is there to save Republicans from legal jams that they get into.

He also does the ideological bidding of the White House. In the last two weeks, he has been part of a 2-1 majority on the D.C. Court of Appeals ruling on the side of the White House to suspend Habeas Corpus.

It is important to also remember that Poppy Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger so that he wouldn't "flip" and spill the beans on Daddy Bush in terms of his neck-deep involvement with Iran-Contra.

Pardons by Bushes to save their own necks are in the bloodline.

Bush will pardon Libby if he needs to, because Bush is already implicated in the Valerie Wilson outing - as we know from the Libby trial.

If Libby were to "flip" and spill the beans to Fitzgerald, Bush and Cheney would be forced to resign or face impeachment.

But Bush is going to wait it out and hope that the back bench of activist partisan right wing judges appointed during the Reagan, Bush and Bush administrations will save him the politically costly act of pardoning Libby.

If for some unexpected reason, Judge Sentelle doesn't get the job done – or Nino "the Fixer" Scalia fails if the Libby appeal reaches the Supreme Court – then Scooter knows Bush will do the deed and grant him the ultimate Bush get-out-of-jail card: a pardon.

Because if Libby talks, Bush and Cheney will likely face some hardcore jail time themselves.

Sing like a bird, Scooter!

And just as an aside, I think the real Fixer should sue the shit out of Scalia for impersonating him.