I would like to know as i am sure many others would,where are all the tough media questions about all this curruption in the government. Why is there not some one digging up the facts and taking these people to the wood shed with this stuff.It seems more and more like the criminals are running things. With immagration, the war in Iraq, out sourcing of the jobs, low wages, the middle class depleting. It tells you just who is on your side in the government.NOT ONE SENETOR, NOT ONE CONGRESSPERSON,AND LEAST OF ALL THE EXCECUTIVE BRACH. So maybe its time for some new thinking of the way the sytem is set up, and eliminate the crooks in there that have created this mess.

Ann Brunswick ME .. maybe Conyers like the rest of his country feels like Bush is .. umm, whats the word here … oh yeah .. LYING!

As http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/04/unpardonable.politics.ap/index.html states: "The 2 1/2 years handed Libby was much like the sentences given others convicted in obstruction cases. Three of every four people convicted for obstruction of justice in federal court were sent to prison, for an average term of more than five years."

But NOT Libby. I guess the FOURTH person got off without any jail time at all?

Re: All you liberals that are upset over Bush commuting Libby’s sentence are probably going to all have full blown strokes when he gives him a pardon at the end of his term.

Posted By Perry, Dallas, Texas : July 9, 2007 7:31 pm

Please no name calling even though the term "liberal" means "open-minded" but people like yourself chose to use the word incorrectly and call anyone who disagrees with you that term as if it is synonomous with something devious.

Bush wrote a book?!?!

How can you write when you can't read?

Just remember, Clinton only did things with a consenting adult. Bush has done the same thing to a non-consenting country. Big difference.

Perry, Dallas, Texas

Not me I'll be dancing in the streets waiving a Placard:
TIME TO CELEBRATE AND REJOICE
AND PLANT NEW SHRUBS
THE BUSH IS GONE!

Was Conyer out to lunch when Bush told America on national television why he commuted Libby's sentence? I believe he indicated that he felt the penalty was too harsh.

Executive Priviledge:
The Constitution nowhere expressly mentions executive privilege. Presidents have long claimed, however, that the constitutional principle of separation of powers implies that the Executive Branch has a privilege to resist certain encroachments by Congress and the judiciary, including some requests for information.

As Columbia University law professor Michael Dorf points out, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon that, “where the President asserts only a generalized need for confidentiality, [executive privilege] must yield to the interests of the government and defendants in a criminal prosecution.”

Bush is invoking such “a generalized need for confidentiality,” according to a senior administration official this morning:

“This is not a mere exercise relating to a particular event. This is an exercise in an attempt to protect the prerogatives of the president for this president and for future presidents.”

L A Times: Josh Meyer.

Cheney's staff has blocked efforts by the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office to enforce a key component of the presidential order: a mandatory on-site inspection of the vice president's office. At least one of those inspections would have come at a particularly delicate time — when Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and other aides were under criminal investigation for their suspected roles in leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Some legal scholars and government secrecy experts noted the irony in Cheney's stance that his office is not fully part of the executive branch, given his claims of executive privilege when refusing to provide information requested by Congress.

Legally, we're in for a fierce fight in the courts. Politically, the White House is now left looking as if it has something to hide, in large part because it almost certainly has something to hide.

All you liberals that are upset over Bush commuting Libby's sentence are probably going to all have full blown strokes when he gives him a pardon at the end of his term.

"Conyers urges Bush to tell Congress why he commuted Libby's sentence"…

And President Bush urges Mr Conyers to vote the Republican ticket during the next election…

Rumor has it, Uncle DICK told him to.

Since the underlying investigation involved the whitehouse directly… the possibility exists that Libby lied to protect others in the whitehouse… Conyers questioning makes perfect sense. Did bush commute to protect himself?????

Clinton was supoened, his actions (pardons, etc) scrutinized. Why don't we just call today's decisions by Conyers and crew exactly what they are… payback.

Remember the days when the Executive Branch sought to protect details of the private lives of Americans while keeping the workings of government open to public scrutiny? Now, our Executive Branch goes to great lengths to prevent the public from discovering otect the details of its governance, while kicking down the walls of personal privacy.

How can anyone support this president or his incompetent administration?

So it's not okay for Bill Clinton to pardon people that are not in the White House staff up for 3 year prison sentences…but it's okay for Bush to pardon Libby?

Al,

Executive privilege should not be used as a tool for further obstruction of justice. As many conservatives like to say, if you don't have anything to hide what are you afraid of??

If there's nothing to hide, then why not testify under oath? As opposed to this, testify behind closed doors, no transcript, records not made public.

What is happening to this country is so sickening, we have a dictatorship in the making because this administration keeps asserting more and more power and the congress and media do nothing to stand up to it. As a citizen I think we should hold our elected officials accountable and if there is law breaking being done, then we should find out and punish those responsible.

Sure, all presidents have exercised their authority to commute sentences. As governor of tx, Bush only commuted one sentence. When asked to do so in other cases, he refused because (he later said in his book) he was satisfied that the defendant was guilty and had received a fair trial. Here, he is commuting the sentence of a man who actually helped him by means of his own illegal conduct. That's not true about Mark Rich or anyone else.

So, sure Bush can do it, but it's an absolute shame that he has chosen to do so. He's an embarrassment to the entire nation — including the "law and order" folks who have no problem with the commutation of Scooter Libby.

Exactly! Why should he have to explain his continued obstruction of justice? This is a dictatorship after all.

Senators John Conyers and Patrick Leahey understand impeaching draconian corrupt executive overreaching and repeated gross constitutional violations of their oaths of office.
True American Patriot: Cindy Sheehan
Traitors and future prisoners: George W. Bush and Richand Chaney

What part of Executive Priviledge does John Conyers and Patrick Leahey not understand? He does not have to explain his decision.