Bruce Bartlett: Bush and Loyalty

Bruce Bartlett says this is a bad sign for president Bush:

Bush & Loyalty, by Bruce Bartlett: In recent posts, I have been talking about tipping points that turned many conservatives against George W. Bush. For me, it was the massively expensive Medicare drug benefit; for others it is de facto amnesty for illegal aliens. Today, Bush's willingness to let Lewis Libby go to jail by failing to give him a pardon has become the tipping point for at least one very prominent Bush supporter who said this:

So much for loyalty, or decency, or courage. For President Bush, loyalty is apparently a one-way street; decency is something he's for as long as he doesn't have to take any risks in its behalf; and courage--well, that's nowhere to be seen. Many of us used to respect President Bush. Can one respect him still?

The author of that remarkably bitter statement is Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. It can be found here.

When Bush loses people like Bill Kristol, who has slavishly defended him day after day after day, one wonders whether there will by anybody left not on a government payroll who will be willing to defend him in the future. For Bush, this is bad, very bad.

I'm glad that marriage is breaking up, but I can't feel sorry for Bush, Kristol, or even the fall guy:

“It was said a number of times: ‘What are we doing with this guy here? Where’s Rove? Where are these other guys?’ ” [the juror, Denis] Collins said, referring to Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who was identified during the investigation as one of the senior officials who revealed the identity of the operative, Valerie Plame, to journalists.

“I’m not saying we didn’t think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of,” Collins said. “It seemed like he was, as Mr. Wells [Ted Wells, Libby’s attorney] put it, he was the fall guy.”

He lied, and you can't do that, but we still don't know the whole story. The outrage should be focused on the crimes, not the lack of a pardon for committing them.