Brazen Tackiness: Bill and Hillary Style

With brazen tackiness, Bill and Hillary Clinton waded into the commutation/pardon waters proving that they have no limit in their obtuse political opportunism. Fortunately, Tony Snow set them straight.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House on Thursday made fun of former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for criticizing President Bush’s decision to erase the prison sentence of former aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

“I don’t know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it,” presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has scheduled hearings on Bush’s commutation of Libby’s 2 1/2-year sentence.

“Well, fine, knock himself out,” Snow said of Conyers. “I mean, perfectly happy. And while he’s at it, why doesn’t he look at January 20th, 2001?”

In the closing hours of his presidency, Clinton pardoned 140 people, including fugitive financier Marc Rich.

The former president tried to draw a distinction between the pardons he granted, and Bush’s decision to commute Libby’s 30-month sentence in the CIA leak case.

“I think there are guidelines for what happens when somebody is convicted,” Clinton told a radio interviewer Tuesday. “You’ve got to understand, this is consistent with their philosophy; they believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle.”

Sen. Clinton, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said the Libby decision “was clearly an effort to protect the White House. … There isn’t any doubt now, what we know is that Libby was carrying out the implicit or explicit wishes of the vice president, or maybe the president as well, in the further effort to stifle dissent.”

Former Vice President Al Gore said he found the Bush decision “disappointing” and said he did not think it was comparable to Clinton’s pardons.

“It’s different because in this case the person involved is charged with activities that involved knowledge of what his superiors in the White House did,” Gore said on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday.

Snow also tried to clear up confusion about Libby’s probation. While commuting Libby’s sentence in terms of prison time, Bush left in place his two years of supervised release. But supervised release—a form of probation—is only available to people who have served prison time. Without prison, it’s unclear what happens next.

Snow said the White House view was this: “You treat it as if he has already served the 30 months, and probation kicks in. Obviously, the sentencing judge will figure out precisely how that works.”

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, earlier this week, said the law “does not appear to contemplate a situation in which a defendant may be placed under supervised release without first completing a term of incarceration.”

He gave Libby’s attorneys and Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald until Monday to respond.

In his commutation decision, Bush left a $250,000 fine. Libby paid the fine on Thursday.

Britian’s Response…How About Appeasement

As reported through several news outlets, and now in Nealz News, Gordon Brown has ordered the members of his government not to discuss terrorism while using the terms, “Muslim,” or “Islamic.”  This should be the outrage  of the week.

And now what does Gordon Brown, the new British Prime Minister do as radical Muslims (physicians, no less) test his new administration with a few terrorist attacks? Does he show steadfast resolve against the Islamic radical enemy? Er … no. In fact, the good prime minister issues an order to his cabinet members that henceforth the word “Muslim” or “Islamic” shall not be used in conjunction with the word “terrorist.” This would be like Winston Churchill telling his British countrymen not to use the word “German” when referring to the V2 rockets that were raining death and destruction on London during World War II.

Simply put … Brown is wrong. There was common traits among the terrorists who launched the attacks last weekend. They were all Muslims. Not one Anglican, Jew, Catholic or Baptist among them. We almost had another common element … most of them were physicians. They were acting in the name of “Allah.” They were fueled with hatred for the Western societies in which they openly practiced medicine, prayed in freedom at mosques existing next to churches and temples, and were allowed to openly practice their religion in peace.

Don’t hide it. Identify them for what they were. Identify then with the ideology that drives them. Muslim! Islamists!

Now here is a shining example of European passiveness. This is a quote from a London citizen: “They’re focusing on terrorists as criminals, rather than people of a religious persuasion.”

Say what? My God! Are these people asleep over there? These bloody wannabe killers are just common criminals without any real religious motivation behind their acts? What’s going on here?

Well .. .I’ll tell you. The Muslim presence in Great Britain, as well as the rest of Western Europe, is so strong that the Brits are just flat-out afraid of riling them up. Who knows, they might do something really ugly if we keep calling them out.

This is a superlative show of weakness. Now we see why the Brits will continue to be attacked by these Islamic murderers. They’re afraid to acknowledge the real problem …. I mean, good Lord, it might offend anyone.