Thanks George, You Just Handed Us the 2008 Election

This post, written by Christy Hardin Smith, originally appeared on FireDogLake

I'm going to say something shocking this morning: thank you, George Bush. For months and months, I have sat here at my laptop, tap, tap, tapping away at article after article illustrating your utter disregard for the law, your disregard of the principles on which this nation was founded, and your failure to recognize that there are higher laws than what George Bush wants at the moment. With one commutation of sentence, W, you just handed us the next election -- the White House, a much stronger hand in Congress, and a club to beat your party with for years to come: you think you are better than the rest of us, and that the laws don't apply to you.

With one stroke of your pen yesterday, you managed to illustrate all of that perfectly with a single action of "my people don't have to live with the same punishment that you little people do."

The Grand Ole Imperial Party cheered in triumph. Scooter is free, no jail time for him, suckahs. Yes, it was a 28 percenter bonanza -- the soft on crime when it is one of "us" (and not "them") crowd roared in approval at no jail time for a multiple-charge-convicted felon.

But the remaining 72 percent of the United States? We're disgusted. With you. With the Dick "I'm my own branch of government." Cheney power grabs. With the George "Honk if you like mountain biking." Bush hands off style of government. With a party that coddled the likes of Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay and every other greedy sumbitch who lined his pockets with public funds because he thought it was his due for being a Republican. The American public is sick of you and your self-dealing, crony-laden, above the law disrespect, and with the Grand Ole Imperial Party which thinks that it should pay no penalty when it gets caught lying, cheating, stealing or simply grabbing whatever it wants while the rest of the nation is left to clean up after their infantile tantrums and outright lies.

And by commuting Scooter Libby's sentence, so that he doesn't have to go to jail like any other American convicted by a jury of their peers would have had to do, you sent a message loud and clear: "We Republicans think we are better than the rest of you. We don't have to be punished, and there is nothing you little people can do about it. Now peel me a grape, peasant."