Fred Fielding is not Harriet Miers!

All this flap about “Scooter’s” commutation and not a full pardon seems to me to be missing the genius of Fred Fielding. As we all know after the November 2006 elections in which the Dems gained control of both houses of the Congress and thus Subpoena Power, Harriet Miers, who was good enough for the U.S. Supreme Court, was jettisoned as the White House Counsel and replaced with a real lawyer, Fred Fielding. Now, Ms. Miers may have been good enough for the Supremes according to this White House, but not good enough to stand between this White House and a Congress who understood its obligation under the Constitution to do Oversight and maybe, even maybe, using a Subpoena or two. No indeed, the White House wanted an actual lawyer and Fred Fielding is indeed a real lawyer and not some fawning faux lawyer sycophant.

So, the move to commute “Scooter’s” sentence and not pardon him seems to me to be a genius move by Fred Fielding the White House, non-sycophant and actual lawyer, Counsel. First as “Scooter” is no longer facing an orange jumpsuit and those group showers he is less likely to want to cozy up to the Prosecution and tell tales out of school that might limit his, shall we say, exposure to the other inmates in that pesky Federal Correctional Facility. Second, and most importantly to the Principals in this Scandal, the commutation also keeps intact his ability to claim the Fifth Amendment right to not testify, and thus incriminate himself and others, in those intrusive Congressional Hearings because his appeal is still pending. I know, I know, this Administration is so interested in upholding the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law.

A Pardon as I understand it would wipe out the conviction and all of the rights of self-incrimination, and the incrimination of others, say Cheney and Bush, etc., having to do with the crimes he was convicted of.

So, this commutation lessens “Scooter’s” pressure to commune with the Prosecution and thus lessen his time with that “criminal element” in a Federal Facility which might make him uncomfortable and expose him to “real crime and punishment” and thus might possibly make him more likely to talk. Not to mention his probable silence also protects the “Principals” of the crime he was convicted of, “Obstructing Justice,” from having to face the same.

Yes folks, this is the genius of having an actual lawyer as a Counsel in the White House (and between you and a subpoena and a Congressional Hearing). Fred Fielding kept George W.’s father from the same fate in Iran-Contra and this apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

Fred Fielding is no Harriet Miers, and George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney are so thankful for that, the Supreme Court not withstanding.

Pardon to come in January 2009.

JMHO!