Democrats Turn Up Heat Over Libby

July 3, 2007 — -- Democrats have seized on President Bush's decision to hand I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby a get-out-of-jail card, escalating a constitutional and political confrontation with the White House about abuse of executive power.

Though Congress is powerless to reverse the president's commutation, several aides said Democratic leaders have considered holding hearings to examine the president's handling of the Libby case, ensuring that an embarrassing chapter of Bush's presidency will remain in the spotlight for weeks and months to come.

The Libby case allows Democrats to link several story lines in which they sense political advantage: the flawed prewar intelligence that marked the runup to the Iraq War; the White House's efforts to stymie congressional oversight of the executive branch; and the secretive office run by Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was Cheney's chief of staff before his indictment forced him to step aside.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., noted that Bush consistently promised that anyone involved in the leaking of classified information would be held accountable, only to later commute the sentence of the only individual convicted in connection with the CIA leak investigation.

"The president shows his word is not to be believed," Pelosi said. "He has abandoned all sense of fairness when it comes to justice. He has failed to uphold the rule of law, and he has failed to hold his administration accountable."

While Libby's fate was hanging in the balance, Cheney had already drawn fire from Democrats over his office's unusual claim that the vice president is not part of the executive branch. His aides used that argument to exempt themselves from the requirements that safeguard classified information.

And the president chose to commute Libby's prison sentence -- saving him from having to spend even a day behind bars -- just as Democrats gear up for a clash with the Bush White House over the president's refusal to turn over documents related to the mass firing of U.S. attorneys.

Democrats are trying to capitalize politically on the president's decision to commute Libby's sentence, sending out a fundraising appeal to supporters Tuesday.

"We may not be able to change the President's decision, but we are fighting back," reads an email from DNC chair Howard Dean. "We're working day and night to take back the White House in 2008 ... contribute now to help us change things in Washington."

On the campaign trail, the Democrats who are running for president wasted no time in slamming the president for helping a friend avoid prison time for a felony. Even Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- who had steered clear of the issue while wrestling with her husband's history of questionable pardons -- came out strong in condemning the act.

"What we saw today was elevating cronyism over the rule of the law," Clinton, D-N.Y., said at a campaign rally Monday night in Iowa. "And what we saw today was further evidence that this administration has no regard whatsoever for what needs to be held sacred."

For their part, Republican presidential candidates welcomed the president's move. They view the commutation in the same political context as the White House: For a segment of loyal Republicans, Libby was seen as the administration's fall guy in a bumbling episode involving a rogue prosecutor, and therefore deserved a presidential bailout.

"This will allow a good American, who has done a lot for his country, to resume his life," said former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

Despite the views of conservative activists, the concept of leniency for Libby has little public support. A March Gallup Poll found only 21 percent of respondents favoring a presidential pardon for Libby, with 67 percent opposed.

Voters have also displayed skepticism about the White House's role in the CIA leak case. A CNN poll in March found that 52 percent of the public believed Cheney was part of a cover-up to try to prevent the special prosecutor from finding out who leaked the identity of an undercover agent.

Bombarded with questions about the decision at his daily briefing Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Libby was not given special treatment by virtue of his former service in the administration. Though Snow said he could not rule out a full pardon for Libby at a future date, he emphasized the fact that his felony conviction -- and $250,000 fine -- stands.

"The president does not look upon this as granting a favor to anyone, and to [suggest] that is to misconstrue the nature of the deliberations," Snow said. "But it is an extraordinary case by virtue of the fact that not only do you have the extreme level of publicity but also that in many ways the hand was called by a court decision to go ahead and send 'Scooter' Libby to jail while he was still in the middle of his appeals process."

The president also declined to comment on the possibility of a pardon for Libby.

"As to the future, I -- you know -- rule nothing in and nothing out," he told reporters outside Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "I made a judgment, a considered judgment that I believe was the right decision to make in this case, and I stand by it."

The president appears not to have gotten all the political mileage he had hoped for. Some conservatives have expressed disappointment that he didn't go further and issue a full pardon for Libby.

Bush did little to help his own standing with the public, and has given fresh ammunition to Democrats who have criticized him for running an administration rife with cronyism, said Stephen Wayne, a presidential scholar at Georgetown University.

"It wasn't wise politically for an administration that trumpets law and order -- or for a president who said that he's going to find out who leaked this information and punish him -- to then commute the sentence of someone who violated the law," Wayne said.

By itself, the Libby issue is unlikely to influence voters, said Stephen Hess, a presidential historian at the Brookings Institution. But discussing his commutation opens up a host of other issues related to Iraq, since the initial investigation was sparked by the administration's attempts to discredit a critic of prewar intelligence, Hess said.

"It may look like Libby is awfully big, but in fact it's Iraq that is awfully big," he said. "Libby was just one person who was going down on the sword for the administration's position on Iraq. … It was obvious that the president was going to keep him out of jail."