The current issue is always free to everyone

If you need the access available to a
and cannot afford the $50 subscription price, request a complimentary subscrpition here.

With President Bush’s decision to commute Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby’s two and a half year prison sentence, it has become obvious what this administration is all about. The America people are being “straight gangstered” by the most extreme group of political ideologues since President Buchanan administration. Buchanan colluded with Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney on the Dred Scott in an attempt to save (and expand) slavery through their own interpretations of the Constitution. It didn’t work. The people ultimately revolted against both Buchanan and the Court’s decision and the Civil War ensued.

Well, now the people—already disgruntled with the way Bush was (s)elected—already disgruntled with the way he lied about the war, handling the rights of the people with the Patriot Act, mishandling Hurricane Katrina and Guantonamo Bay, not to mention the economy and gas-gauging that has taken place, revolted and took back their Congress. You would think that Bush had gotten the message. Instead, he went into straight “gangsta” mode, choosing to use the remainder of his lame duck term to do whatever the hell he wants in commuting Libby and stating that a pardon is not out of the question. Those of you young kids out there, who want to be gangstas when you grow up, turn off BET and MTV and turn on CNN, C-SPAN and FOX cable news. Watching the Bush White House will show you how to gangster legitimately.

Today, the Bush Administration has its own interpretation of the Constitution, presidential powers and its level of accountability to the American people. In fact, they don’t believe they have to be accountable to the American people. This group of ideologues is just accountable to each other regardless of the law and appearances of impropriety. A kind of “loyalty thing” that gangsters demonstrate. Gangsters don’t care about the law. Gangsters don’t care what things looks like, or appear to look like. They just care about how things shake out, and if you get in their way-you get crushed (unless you ask for forgiveness). Pundits had long predicted that Libby would not go to jail. He knew too much and always had that look like, “you guys better not let me go down.”

Can’t you almost imagine President Bush saying, “Don’t worry, Scooter, we’re going to break you out.” Libby was (is) in the top tier of the Bush circle. His trial revealed that the President may have known about his actions and even condoned it. This administration has attacked anybody who has attacked the war. The meanspiritedness of outing a CIA agent after her husband criticized the Bush Administration’s justification for the war (and he was right, by the way), showed the type of retaliatory behavior gangstas are known for. No one working in government would be bold enough to risk felony conviction, for breaching national security and the life of an undercover agent, if they either didn’t have sanction from above or knew the consequences would be “handled.”

Libby’s act was too abrasive and too swift not to be “greenlighted.” Of course, the rumors were that Libby was the fall guy for Dick Cheney, and all the “higher ups” were in the loop on this.  Unlike in the case of Nixon, there were no tapes to corroborate the act so the President could hide behind a denial that keeps him one tier removed from the actual crime. Just like the top tiers of organized crime. Very rarely are they caught holding the “smoking gun.” Except for Dick Cheney, and even in his case, the “friend” he shot ended up publicly apologizing to the Vice President for getting in the way of his shotgun pellets. Cheney, who most recently said that he is not accountable to any legislative authority, forgave him. And obviously, both Cheney and President Bush forgave Libby and rewarded his loyalty in not giving them up. Bush has even said that a pardon is not out of the question.

Former President Bill Clinton, who like the Presidents before him, pardoned supporters and friends alike—criticized President Bush’s commutation as improper, because of the potential criminal “cover-up” ramifications that could go all the way to the top, was then attacked by administration spokespersons and aspiring Republicans for handing our pardons like candy. Yeah, but Clinton didn’t hand out any pardons to top level personnel convicted while still in the administration (remember, Libby never resigned—he was placed on administrative leave while he fought the case) and Congress still trying to follow the invisible paper trail. Clinton faced impeachment for less than what Bush and Cheney have done. The administration has all but told Congress to “bring it on.” You know Bush has said that before. I thought that was the cowboy in him talking. Turns out to be the gangsta in him. He just did it under the guise of correcting an excessive sentence. Like the criminal justice system doesn’t hand out excessive sentences on a regular basis. Just ask Black and Latinos. What he meant was, it was “excessive” for his boys.

Don’t be fooled by these guys’ nerdish looks and goofy personalities—they understand the play and are pushing it to the hilt. They will push the world to the brink of war, the environment to the brink of destruction, to enrich themselves, and will attack anyone that calls it out. They know that they have all the laws, all the force of the government, and the loopholes of the law, at their discretion. And if they a break one or two (or three or four)—they have the President pardon and reprieve power to fall back on. Like gangstas, they try to be as “legit” as they can, but will revert when they have to. Well, they had to on the Libby conviction. If Libby goes to jail, he sings like a jailbird and they didn’t want to have to take out one of their own. They’d rather make a mockery of the law than have Libby make a mockery of them. Or break the law rather than break Libby.

The American people aren’t helpless to do anything, but will probably wait until the next national election to revolt. By then, Bush and the boys will have had their way with us. Bush’s action defeats the whole premise we’re a nation of checks and balances, and honest government.

But then again, gangstas are rarely checked and we have a whole White House full of ‘em.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of the upcoming book, Saving The Race: Empowerment Through Wisdom. His Website is AnthonySamad.com. Click here to contact Dr. Samad.