One of the greatest political (/conservative) thinkers of the last century William F. Buckley, wrote a column for National Review in which he calls on Bush to pardon Libby. Buckley essentially argues that although Libby broke the law, he should be pardoned, because, here it comes, he caused no real harm and he is not a bad guy. O, and the ones who say that Libby should go to jail do not care about justice, they simply want to “damage the Bush administration.”
Of course, all of the above is no reason to pardon someone. Libby, Buckley admits, broke the law, lied and, by doing so “he hindered the execution of justice.” The logical, and legal result: jailtime.
It surprises me that an intellectually honest traditional conservative like Mr. Buckley – who is a firm believer in the Rule of Law – would argue that Libby should be pardoned for before mentioned ‘reasons.’ They are not ‘reasons,’ they are excuses.
Libby caused, thus writes Buckley, no damage at all, to no one. I wonder whether Mr. Buckley watched Plame’s testimony before US Congress?
I greatly respect William F. Buckley Jr., but I would hope that he would be above overly partisan politics like this.
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