Commuter-in-Chief

This week's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence for obstruction of justice in the CIA leak investigation is just another in a long line of second term blunders for which President Bush will be remembered.

For those among us who voted for Bush the second time around, it has become abundantly clear that he isn't who we thought he was.

Many of us came to the conclusion that his plain-spokenness and old-fashioned dungaree disposition made him unique in Washington--a shiny buckle inside the beltway.

We were wrong.

President Bush is a corrupt politician at his core, corrupt even in his feigned old west populism.

And while it is clear that Scooter Libby lied about his involvement in spilling the beans with regard to Plame, who was an undercover CIA operative at the time, what is more troubling is that Libby is probably just another useful political cast-off--the quintessential fall guy.

Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, is a virulent anti-Iraq War critic and outing her, in my humble opinion, the Bush Administration's way of taking revenge for undermining the effort.

Borrowing the title of a David Horowitz (or Sun Tzu) book, it is the art of political war.

Libby got sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison and fined 250,000 bucks. Since, of course, paying the fine won't be much of a problem for Libby, Bush saw to it to award him clemency without every serving a day behind bars.

This is the unchecked executive power of the President at work, and it stinks to high heaven.

The same people who were outraged when President Clinton pardoned his derelict brother, George, and international scumbag, Marc Rich, should be every bit as disappointed in Bush for enaging in blatant cronyism.

But, they won't be because they cannot see truth through that opaque veil of partisanship that continually clouds their judgement.

Presidents Bush and Clinton both defended their constitutional right to pardon and commute such sentences as if that, by itself, made their decision just. Like the Apostle Paul wrote, their actions may have been "permissable," but they were certainly not constructive.

Like I.F. Stone wrote many years ago, "all governments lie."

Bush on Immigration

Suffice it to say, there are several facets of the on again/off again immigration bill that I actually agree with.

That being said, President Bush (and other prominent Republicans like Lindsey Graham) is breaking ranks with conservatives and throwing in with Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid for the express purpose of putting his party in good stead with the largest minority group in the United States--Hispanics.

At the very least, when Lyndon Johnson pandered to African-Americans in the early 1960s (Civil Rights Act of 1964) he did so with the after effect of empowering millions of marginalized minorities.

LBJ did it for votes, and it worked.

The merit of the 2007 immigration bill, however, is dubious at best. Bush and his cronies in the Republican Party ostensibly support the legislation because they've decided that illegal immigration is good for business in this country.

Again, such an assertion is dubious because illegal immigration is clearly a strain on the economy as well (social services, education, etc.)

Granting legal status to 12 million or more illegals living in the United States currently is amnesty irrespective of the measures that are to be put in place in the interim.

Illegal today, legal tomorrow...that's amnesty.

(And yes, race does play a role in the equation. The fact that the vast majority of the illegals in this country are hispanic is part of the reason many conservative are virulently against the bill. It's a regrettable mindset, to be sure.)

The bottom line is that the United States government is responsible for the security of our borders and it is failing. Protect the borders, enforce the law and only then will this country be in a position to utilize the reserve labor pool to the south.

It's poor timing on the part of Bush, the Democrats, and those few churlish Republicans who will take it on the chin for playing kissy-face with the far left.