Pardon for Scooter Libby?: Dean: Libby Has Been Pardoned

Pardon for Scooter Libby?

This blog features a series of regularly updated, brief essays regarding the possible presidential pardon of "Scooter" Libby with an emphasis on history, law and empirical research. The creator is ProfessorP.S. Ruckman, Jr., author of the forthcoming book, Pardon Me, Mr. President: Adventures in Crime, Politics and Mercy .

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Dean: Libby Has Been Pardoned

The head of the DNC, Howard Dean, has now made his contribution to the dumbing-down of the American public re federal executive clemency. In this editorial, Dean writes (of Republican presidential hopefuls):

They support President Bush's pardon of White House Aide Scooter Libby. We believe in widespread ethics reform legislation to clean up the mess in Washington.

Of course, this does sound a little more snappy than:

They support President Bush's commutation of a portion of the sentence given to White House Aide Scooter Libby. We believe in widespread ethics reform legislation to clean up the mess in Washington.

If Dean is coming from other direction, well, he gets smacked there too. Some of the Republican candidates have clearly expressed some hesitation at the notion of a potential pardon. Unlike Dean, when doing so, they were actually discussing a pardon, not a commutation. That is to say, they were both understanding and using the language correctly.