Scooters in Paradise
Scooter Libby's jail sentence was commuted yesterday by President Bush, who gleefully claimed that he made the decision by himself in the same tone that my young kids used to use about solo potty endeavors.
Paris Hilton was forced to serve two weeks in jail for driving with a suspended license (twice). Scooter was sentenced for lying to a Grand Jury, although ostensibly he was being investigated for outing Valerie Plame, a CIA agent.
To me, both sentences seem harsh. TMZ makes the comparison today, citing their own polling showing that 90% of the 120,000 people who responded, believed that Paris should serve the time and 60% felt the same way about Scooter.
I could care less about Paris Hilton. It sounds to me like she got sentenced because of an attitude that wealthy celebrities often have, that somehow normal rules don't apply to them. Maybe her short sojourn in the slammer will put a scare into the 'A' list, although somehow I doubt it. I suspect that that the real outcome will be a maturing change in Paris...no one can do that kind of jail time and emerge unscathed. She was probably terrified every minute she was there and I can empathize with the fear that she must have had using the unsheltered toilet in front of dozens of hard-core, highly amused prisoners.
Scooter Libby is part of an elite group of draft-dodging, yet war-mongering scofflaws. He and his boss, the aptly named "Dick" Cheney were part of that ol' white-boy sing along that we call the Iraqi War. I think that Scooter should go to jail for something, if nothing else, for being the VP's buttboy. Lying to a Grand Jury is a serious thing, but in Bill Clinton's case, it seemed to be used as a political tool to get at someone you don't like. Now that I think of it, the same argument applies to Scooter. Scooter's recent sentence commutation by President Bush, was, however, a travesty of justice. Harsh sentence or not, we do not all have friends like 'W' who can wave their wand and keep us out of jail. As rich and famous as she is, Paris could not avoid jail time. Since Scooter was effectively covering Bush and Cheney's ample white asses, it seems as if they should have not been able to issue him a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Paris and Scooter. Scooter and Paris. Forever locked in our memories as two badboys caught and over-sentenced in the year of crime. Who would have ever guessed that out of the two, the one who would do jail time would be the flighty socialite with a moving violation?
Posted on July 04, 2007
