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Isikoff: Bush Had to Consider Cheney in Libby Commutation

By Jeralyn, Section Lewis Libby Trial Coverage
Posted on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 02:56:21 PM EST
Tags: Libby Trial (all tags)
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Michael Iskifoff covers the Scooter Libby sentence commutation in Newsweek today. As to the role Dick Cheney may have played, he writes:

Hanging over his deliberations was Cheney, who had said he was "very disappointed" with the jury's verdict. Cheney did not directly weigh in with Fielding, but nobody involved had any doubt where he stood. "I'm not sure Bush had a choice," says one of the advisers. "If he didn't act, it would have caused a fracture with the vice president." (White House officials and Cheney declined to comment. "As you know, we don't discuss internal deliberations," a Cheney spokeswoman tells NEWSWEEK.)

One of my first thoughts after hearing about the commutation was that it showed Dick Cheney still had a lot of clout. Now I'm wondering how he'll use it to obstruct the Congressional hearings next week. Cheney has a penchant for hiding behind executive privilege.

Update: Josh Marshall adds some thoughts on this.

< Schumer Says Hearing Committee May Call Patrick Fitzgerald | The Congressional Subpoena Power: How It Is Enforced >

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    Isikoff: Bush Had to Consider Cheney in Libby Commutation | 4 comments (4 topical)

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    Anyone who says... (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by TomStewart on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 03:25:36 PM EST
    Cheney's stock is going down in the White house doesn't understand the dynamic between the Pres and the VP. It has been shown that Cheney has his fingers in everything that goes down in, and comes out of the WH, and the clemency has his super-secret stamp all over it. Granting it protects Bush yes, but it's Cheney whose butt is really hanging out with loyal Scootie in jail.

    Again, it's another example of how men with no accountability control this White House and has helped plunge America into a nightmare it will take decades to extract itself from. Our army nearly destroyed, the economy trashed, the tax system more tilted than evey, and the justice system presided over by a lackey in the AG's office and right wing partisans sitting on the SCOUTUS for decades to come.

    Man, I'm gonna sit in the sun and work on my book. Tomorrow, I'll call Cantwell and Murry's offices again. I think they're starting to recognize my voice...

    Heartbeat (5.00 / 2) (#4)
    by Angie Hartford on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 07:56:25 PM EST
    George W. Bush. The man who's one heartbeat away from the presidency, and would assume power if Cheney became incapacitated for any reason.

    Into Absurdity (1.00 / 2) (#2)
    by jarober on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 04:09:43 PM EST
    The left has gone around the bend.  Stop and consider just how absurd your theory of the administration is: in left world, Cheney is the anti-christ, behind everything evil that you imagine is happening.

    Here's a hot tip: Other than being head of the Senate, the VP has exactly as much power as the President decides to delegate to him.  If you have a problem, it's not with Cheney.  

    This mania has gotten as bad as some of the Clinton haters who believed that Hillary had Vince Foster killed, and that she had some kind of voodoo hold over the President.  Frankly, it's pathetic.

    Frankly... (4.50 / 2) (#3)
    by TomStewart on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 04:25:30 PM EST
    it's pathetic the amount of power the President has seeded over to the VP. Hwe has run his own unchecked and secret op out of the WH, with Bush just going along for the past six years. It amazes me how You and your ilk (great word) have ignored how the incompetence that has blundered and slashed it's way out of this administration for for the past six years, and then, when someone (and it's not just the right-wing bugaboo 'the left' <shudder!> that's worried about this) calls them on it, you shout 'Oh! Worse than Clinton hatred! Oh, the poor, poor left, what will they do, what will they do! Tsk tsk.'.

    Read the polls. America is finally waking up to the nightmare regime that is in the WH now, and are calling on us to do something about it.

    As the saying goes, not part of the solution...?

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    Isikoff: Bush Had to Consider Cheney in Libby Commutation | 4 comments (4 topical)

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