The New York Sun’s editorial on President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence got it right:
The decision to spare Libby time in prison is not only humane but also just, for the underlying leak of Valerie Plame’s identity was committed not by Libby but by Richard Armitage, and once that was known, the investigation should have stopped. Clemency is one of the presidency’s least fettered constitutional powers, and in exercising it yesterday, Mr. Bush made clear that he understands the office he holds.
Mr. Bush’s nuanced statement paid heed both to the decision of the judge and jury in the case and also to the facts as they are. Not so the intemperate response by the special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, who, in an extraordinary statement for an employee of the executive branch, challenged Mr. Bush’s judgment that the 30-month prison sentence imposed on Mr. Libby was "excessive."
As Story realized and as Mr. Bush realizes, it was precisely to deal with failures of judgment such as Mr. Fitzgerald’s and the sentencing judge’s that the Founders of America inserted the powers of pardon and clemency into the Constitution.
It makes no sense that Libby would go to jail for lying about what was not a crime, while Armitage — who committed the actual act in question and kept silent about it while Libby was questioned — remains free.
It makes no sense that Sandy Berger can steal and destroy documents regarding 9/11 from the National Archives (while the event was under Senate investigation) and receive not only no jail time but a fine one-fifth of that levied on Libby.
George W. Bush’s statement was not simply nuanced, but reflective and eloquent. He will receive criticism from both the New York Times (for going too far) and the Wall Street Journal (for not going far enough). But he balanced justice and mercy and came to the right result for a good man who rendered extraordinary service to his country. Even after the commutation, Libby’s punishment will exceed that imposed on Armitage for releasing Plame’s name and Berger for destroying national security documents.