Empathy is a quality that must not, under any circumstances, ever be included as any part of the judicial decision-making process. Or so bleat the right-wing sheep, in perfectly coordinated unison.
Strangely, we heard kind of the opposite when the same sheep were bleating for leniency for Scooter Libby:
Republican political strategist Mary Matalin writes -- in a letter also signed by her husband, James Carville -- that Libby went out his way to provide Halloween festivities to the Cheney grandchildren once. She also mentions how her own daughters call him "Mr. Scooter" and simply cannot attribute "the facts" of the court case to that person. "What further justice could be served by additional devastation to them and the many other children who love Scooter?"
Was Matalin arguing on the law there, or was she hoping to evoke some empathy from the judge?
There's more:
Prior to sentencing, various individuals sent several hundred pages of letters to the judge on Libby's behalf. Most made personal pleas for leniency by vouching for his good character. They are worth looking over one more time. Notable public figures like Donald Rumsfeld and Henry Kissinger provide the star power, but the real treasures often come from slightly less well-known sources, addressing issues one might perhaps characterize as tangential to the legal issues at hand...
Meanwhile, Georgetown University linguist Deborah Tannen offers exhibits A and B for Libby's good neighborliness: "I appeared on his doorstep and asked to borrow a tool that is needed to turn a valve that regulates our septic field. Scooter not only graciously produced the tool; he walked with me to the valve and did the job himself. When he spied my husband laboring to dig our car out of a pile of snow, without saying a word, Libby retrieved a shovel and began working alongside my husband to dig out the car."
...
Dr. Diane and Andrew Kane, meanwhile, thought to let Judge Walton know that Libby "plays a mean game of Botticelli (a version of Twenty Questions)."...
I'm having trouble spotting the the legal aspects of those letters.
Bush (shudder) argued basically that Scooter's a good guy so it's ok to pervert the justice system:
President Bush wiped away the prison sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Monday, calling it an "excessive" punishment for a "first-time offender with years of exceptional public service."
The GOP presidential candidates also whined about the jury's verdict:
Conservative Presidential Candidates Back Libby Pardon
During tonight’s presidential debate, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer asked all the candidates to say whether they would pardon Scooter Libby, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison today for his felony convictions related to the CIA leak case.
Former mayor Rudy Giuliani said the case “argues more in favor of a pardon,” calling today’s sentencing “way out of line” and “grossly excessive.” Giuliani said the case against Libby was “incomprehensible” because “ultimately, there was no underlying crime involved.”
Likewise, former governor Mitt Romney said it’s “worth looking at a pardon,” because special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald “clearly abused prosecutorial discretion” by going on a “political vendetta” against Libby despite knowing he was not the original source of the leak.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) said definitively they would pardon Libby. Former governor Tommy Thompson said he likely would. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) answered, “He’s going through an appeal process. We’ve got to see what happens here.” Former governors Jim Gilmore and Mike Huckabee and Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) said they would not pardon him, at least without learning more about the case. Watch it:
The fact that Libby didn’t commit the “underlying crime” — i.e., the leaking of Valerie Plame’s CIA status — means nothing. Libby was convicted on obstruction of justice charges precisely because he prevented the special prosecutor from conclusively determining why Plame’s identity was disclosed. As Fitzgerald previously explained: “What we have when someone charges obstruction of justice, the umpire gets sand thrown in his eyes. He’s trying to figure what happened and somebody blocked their view.”
So much for “law and order” conservatism.
UPDATE: Note that Judge Reggie Walton echoed Fitzgerald during the sentencing today: “Your lies blocked an extremely serious investigation, and as result you will indeed go to prison,” Walton told Libby.
Congressman Rangel makes some good points in this 2007 editorial:
OPINION EDITORIAL
Bush and GOP Presidential Wannabes Show Compassion for Powerful Friends
By Congressman Charles B. Rangel
November 8, 2007 4:51 PM
Fred Thompson seems to think forgiveness is one of his strong suits. The Republican presidential aspirant recently brushed off news that one of his campaign co-chairmen, Phil Martin, posted a guilty plea in 1979 for selling 11 pounds of marijuana and a no-contest plea in 1983 for cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. "You are talking about something that happened in his life, I guess, 25 years ago... when he was in his 20s," Thompson said.
Not to be outdone, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor running for the Republican presidential nomination, has excused the illegal dealings of Bernard Kerik, Giuliani's former police commissioner whose nomination to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security he supported. "Sure, there were issues," Giuliani told the Associated Press, "but if I have the same degree of success and failure as president of the United States, this country will be in great shape."
Even before them, President George Bush commuted the 30-month prison sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby who had been convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators in the probe of the leak of the name of a CIA operative. In another case of compassion and forgiveness of the powerful, the President claimed that Libby's sentence was "excessive," and that the suffering of the former aid to Vice President Cheney "long-lasting."
Thompson, Giuliani, and Bush have proven that they're willing to forgive millionaires and the powerful for big mistakes.
Law and order goes out the door - empthay is ok of you're a conservative criminal!