Enough has been made by this (and virtually every other center-left) blog about President Bush's outrageous endorsement of his administration's law-breaking and ongoing obstruction of justice with the Libby commutation. But it is worth remembering that this is merely Bush being Bush, consistent in his own inconsistency. That is, a gleeful vengeance towards criminals occupies a high place in George W. Bush's pantheon of values. Just not as high, as we all should long have since known, as rewarding personal loyalty and ensuring his own survival.
No doubt, Bush's pardon-power schadenfreude is legendary, dating back to his days as Texas Governor. Never spending more than 15 minutes on a death row review, Governor Bush calmly sent 152 of 153 inmates to their executions. In this one area of public policy, George W. Bush believes in equal opportunity: the underage, the infirm and the developmentally-disabled all deserve a chance at execution. And when his allies on the religious right pressured him to spare murderess turned jailhouse born-again Christian Karla Faye Tucker, Governor Bush displayed his trademark resolve - and compassion. As Time recounted in 1999:

Tucker Carlson of Talk magazine described the smirk Bush wore as he mimicked convicted murderer turned Christian Karla Faye Tucker begging, "Please don't kill me," something she never actually did.

As you may recall, Bush's seeming bloodlust towards criminal defendants almost derailed his 2000 presidential campaign. During his second debate against Al Gore in October 2000, Bush was asked about his position on hate crimes laws in the wake of the brutal dragging death of African-American James Byrd in his home state of Texas. His disturbing response - accompanied by a sickening grin - produced gasps among the audience:

"The three men who murdered James Byrd, guess what's going to happen to them? They're going to be put to death. A jury found them guilty. It's going to be hard to punish them any worse after they get put to death.

Even the tone-deaf Bush sensed he had crossed the line. In the third debate, he wisely retreated, acknowledging he was "not proud" of Texas' number one ranking in executions.
As President, George W. Bush has maintained his hard line towards criminals and upholding their punishments. His administration argued - unsuccessfully - before the Supreme Court that developmentally-disabled and under 18 death row inmates too deserve their chance at the gallows. In June, Attorney General Gonzales announced that the Bush department of Justice would push for new, harsher mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines in the wake of the Supreme Court's Booker decision.
When it comes to his presidential pardon power, George W. Bush has been stingy, indeed. President Bush has issued 111 pardons and just three other commutations. And back in Texas, Governor George W. Bush "issued fewer pardons than any Texas Governor since the 1940s (16 up to January 2000, as opposed to 70 for his immediate predecessor Ann Richards, 822 for 2-term governor Bill Clements, and 1048 for John Connally, Texas governor from 1963-69)."
Which is why the blogosphere is all the more outraged by Bush's commutation of Libby's 30 month prison sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice on Monday. It's not just the President has now made himself an accessory to obstruction of justice in effectively stonewalling Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the White House campaign against Valerie and Joseph Wilson. And it's not just the cronyism is giving a friend and close aide a get out of jail free card. It's the seeming inconsistency when other comparable cases of felons convicted for obstruction of justice, such as Victor Rita and Jamie Olis, receive no special dispensation from President Bush.
But his critics in the mainstream media and blogosphere alike fail to appreciate that George W. Bush is the Asterisk President. His apparent inconsistency in the Libby commutation fades away with the realization that Bush's is the "yes, but" presidency, where "always X, unless Y" is the modus operandi. For example, the Bush Doctrine dictates that the United States will promote the expansion of democracy to every nation*, unless the nation is Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, China, etc. President Bush will pursue and prosecute those who leak national security secrets*, unless they in fact work for the administration or the Republican Party. And George W. Bush's America, criminals will always do the time*, unless personal relationships and Bush's political survival dictate otherwise.
Ralph Waldo Emerson famously declared, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Of George W. Bush, truer words were never spoken.