The Republican defense of President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence in the main has been based on “Clinton did it first”, focusing specifically on President Clinton’s pardon of his friend, financier Mark Rich, and secondarily on the 140-odd other individuals pardoned in the last hours of the first Clinton presidency.

All of these strident voices are ignoring the vital difference between the two presidents. Unlike Bush, President Clinton did not pardon anyone who was accused of covering up his own, Clinton’s, crimes in taking this country into an unnecessary and unjust war based upon a great lie. The reason President Clinton did not is because he did not commit such crimes in the first place, and consequently had nothing to hide.

President Bush, who has committed and continues to commit these crimes to this day, is still in need of protection from the consequences of his actions. That is why Scooter Libby is free today, and was in fact never in any real danger of incarceration.