WHERE ARE ALL THOSE REPUBLICANS WHO WANTED TOUGHER PRISON SENTENCES AND "LAW AND ORDER"?

What ever happened to all those Republicans who clamored for tougher prison sentences for felons? Those same guys who wanted judges to be meting out hard time to those in the lower economic and social strata of society who smoked crack or who entered the country without documents. I am talking about the Tancredos and the Hatches. The Duncan Hunters and the James Sensenbrenners?

Here we have Scooter Libby convicted of felonies, not just misdemeanors. A jury in federal district court found Libby guilty of perjury, of obstruction of justice and of lying to the FBI. Yet Bush feels the sentence imposed by Judge Reggie Walton, a judge appointed to the federal bench by Bush 41, was too lenient? How about looking at the harsh mandatory sentences handed out in federal court to those who possess a certain amount of cocaine or marijuana, those who receive 10 years or more of hard time, where there is no parole allowed. And how about even Enron president Jeffrey Skilling? I know he lied to investors and because of his mismanagement Enron went down the tube. But Skilling is now serving 24 years.

Yet Scooter Libby walks free after committing perjury and obstruction of justice? The answer is because Libby did what Cheney and Bush told him to do. And Libby was the good soldier, covering the tracks so that Fitzgerald could not pursue his boss Cheney or even Bush. What we have in effect is Bush pardoning himself. Someone commits a crime for the benefit of Bush and Cheney, then Bush commutes his sentence so that Libby serves not one day in jail.

So let those Republicans who defend George Bush and Dick Cheney, who always in the past clamored for "law and order" and harsh prison sentences, speak up now against this miscarriage of justice.

There are many lessons from this commutation for Libby. But the principal one is that you deserve a harsh prison sentence if you are just one of the hoi polloi. But if you are a friend of Bush or Cheney, then any sentence you receive for committing perjury or obstruction of justice is too harsh, too excessive.