Get out of jail free

Just when you think you couldn’t have any more contempt for George Bush, he goes and does it again.

Recap:

Lewis Libby [a former aide to Dick Cheney] … was found guilty in March of perjury and obstructing justice in a case connected to Washington's decision to invade Iraq.
His trial stemmed from the accusation that the White House had illegally made public the identity of a serving CIA agent, Valerie Plame, in an apparent effort to embarrass her husband. Ms Plame's husband, a former US diplomat, had publicly criticised the basis for the invasion of Iraq. … He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, two years of probation and a fine of $250,000.

And now Bush has intervened, calling the punishment “excessive” and commuting the jail sentence.

The BBC's James Westhead in Washington said the president's decision was a compromise between pardoning Libby outright and allowing his sentence to stand.

Well, that’s one way of putting it; another would be to say that it was a compromise between justice and corruption.

There are no good reasons for a president to have this power.