Journalists should stop trying to be lawyers.

Michael Isokoff says pardoning Libby would be a problem:

“President Bush may well pardon Scooter Libby. But he‚Äôd have to flout Justice Department guidelines in order to do it.”

“The president has since indicated he intended to go by the book in granting what few pardons he‚Äôd hand out‚Äîconsidering only requests that had first been reviewed by the Justice Department under a series of publicly available guidelines.

Those regulations, which are discussed on the Justice Department Web site at www.usdoj.gov/pardon, would seem to make a Libby pardon a nonstarter in George W. Bush’s White House. They “require a petitioner to wait a period of at least five years after conviction or release from confinement (whichever is later) before filing a pardon application,” according to the Justice Web site.

Moreover, in weighing whether to recommend a pardon, U.S. attorneys are supposed to consider whether an applicant is remorseful. ‚ÄúThe extent to which a petitioner has accepted responsibility for his or her criminal conduct and made restitution to … victims are important considerations. A petitioner should be genuinely desirous of forgiveness rather than vindication,‚Äù the Justice Web site states.

Of course, there is nothing that requires Bush to follow these guidelines in reviewing a pardon for Libby (whose lawyer, Ted Wells, stated on the courthouse steps Tuesday that he intended to push for a retrial, adding that he has “every confidence that Mr. Libby will be vindicated.”) As Love, the former pardon attorney, points out, “the president can do whatever he wants.” Both Clinton and Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush (who pardoned Casper Weinberger among other Iran-contra figures), bear that out.

Still, Bush himself publicly reaffirmed his determination to stick to the Justice pardon guidelines as recently as last month. In a Feb. 1 interview with Fox News anchor Neal Cavuto, Bush was asked about whether he would pardon Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug dealer who was fleeing across the border into Mexico. Their case has become a cause celebre for many conservatives and anti-immigrant activists who believe it symbolizes the federal government’s lack of aggressive enforcement of border controls. Fueled by CNN immigration critic Lou Dobbs and Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, supporters of the two former agents have been flooding the White House with e-mails and phone calls seeking pardons for Ramos and Compean.

Bush‚Äôs response in Cavuto‚Äôs inquiry was telling. He repeatedly pointed to the Justice Department pardon process to explain how he would make his decision.”

Well, I eluded to those guidlines before. Yet they deal specifically with a convicted person – Libby – waiting out a five year period before THEY provide application. There is however, no time limit to the president granting a problem sans an application according to Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution.

He could do it today.

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