Libby Pardon: Justice Only for the Powerful

What about those border policemen who were convicted for doing their job:

ROMANS: Supporters of former border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are asking for the same compassion. Ramos and Compean are also convicted felons. Their careers also over. They are serving sentences of 11 and 12 years for not following protocol and shooting a fleeing illegal alien drug smuggler in the buttocks.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Clearly if Scooter Libby deserves a commutation, I would hope that the White House on this July 4th, tomorrow, would fully pardon Compean and Ramos. Ramos has already been beaten up in prison by some of the inmates who recognized him as a border patrol agent. I think they have been punished enough.

ROMANS: While the president has declared the 30-month sentence of a former aide excessive, he has let stand long prison sentences for the agents. The pardon is an exclusive power of the executive branch and scores of lawmakers have demanded Bush add the convicted agents to the list. Bush has pardoned at least 10 convicted drug offenders, in addition to counterfeiters, embezzlers, tax evaders and moon shiners. President Clinton pardoned 396 criminals most famously, fugitive financier Mark Rich and his own brother. This president's father pardoned only 74, but Reagan pardoned 393, among the 382 Ford pardoned, one was for his predecessor Richard Nixon.

The Washington Post points out the double standard:

Advocates for clemency point to President Bill Clinton, who lied under oath but was not removed from office or put in jail, and to Mr. Clinton's former national security adviser, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, who lied to investigators about sneaking documents from the National Archives but who also received no jail time.

The pot calling the kettle black:

As she campaigns with her husband for Iowa's leadoff precinct caucuses, Clinton has joined other Democrats in ripping Bush's decision. In the interview, she said it was "one more example" of the Bush administration thinking "it is above the rule of law."

Her husband's pardons, issued in the closing hours of his presidency, were simply routine [huh?!!] exercise in the use of the pardon power, and none were aimed at protecting the Clinton presidency or legacy, she said.

"This particular action by the president is one more piece of evidence in their ongoing disregard for the rule of law that they think they don't have to answer to," she said.