Some Questions

So, just supposing that a fellow worked in the White House, and then was convicted of obstruction of justice for lying to prosecutors about his activities on the job. Then, say, a White House famous for not granting leniency to convicts commuted his sentence before he ever served a day on a sentence that followed established guidelines. Wouldn't a reasonable person wonder whether there was a quid pro quo, and whether there was a further obstruction of justice in progress?

I'm just sayin'.

By the way:

John Mitchell, was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury and sentenced to two and a half to eight years in prison, which was later reduced to one to four years; Mitchell actually served 19 months.

H.R. Haldeman, was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice and received an 18-month prison sentence.

John Ehrlichman was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury and other charges; he served 18 months in prison.

Charles Colson pleaded nolo contendere to one charge of obstruction of justice; he was sentenced to 1 to 3 years of prison and fined $5,000; Colson served seven months.

And in case you were wondering, from Article I of the Nixon articles of impeachment:

3. approving, condoning, acquiescing in, and counselling witnesses with respect to the giving of false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States and false or misleading testimony in duly instituted judicial and congressional proceedings;

4. interfering or endeavouring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the Department of Justice of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and Congressional Committees;

Update: Marcy Wheeler, who literally wrote the book on Plame-gate, contributes her take:

On June 9, 2003, just one day after his national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, got beaten up on the Sunday shows for claiming no one in the administration knew that the Niger intelligence was bunk, George Bush expressed concern about the allegations. Scooter Libby passed on that concern to vice president Cheney. Bush's concern set off a chain of events that ended up in the outing of a CIA spy, Valerie Plame, and the indictment and conviction of Scooter Libby.

Yesterday, George Bush attempted to prevent that chain of events from continuing any further. He commuted Scooter Libby's 30-month sentence. Rather than serving time in jail, Libby will remain free, with a fine and probation as the only remaining punishments for lying and obstructing a criminal investigation. But the real effect of Bush's actions is to prevent Libby from revealing the truth about Bush's - and vice president Cheney's - own actions in the leak. By commuting Libby's sentence, Bush protected himself and his vice president from potential criminal exposure for their actions in the CIA Leak. As such, Libby's commutation is nothing short of another obstruction of justice.

More where that came from.