Off The Reservation

by digby

Something very strange happens when you stop drinking that DC water. Here’s Asa Hutchinson, who’s now back in Arkansas:

Hutchinson, the 2006 Republican candidate for Arkansas governor, said Monday he was surprised by a response to a question in a recent debate among Republican presidential candidates.

When asked, many of the GOP presidential hopefuls at a recent debate at least did not immediately rule out the idea that Lewis “ Scooter” Libby should get a presidential pardon.

They should have ruled out a pardon for Libby, said Hutchinson, who addressed a meeting of the Bella Vista Republican Women.

Libby, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury after being questioned under oath. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald questioned Libby and others in connection with his investigation of a CIA-leak case.

Hutchinson is a former U. S. attorney and, as a member of Congress, served as a manager when the House impeached President Bill Clinton, in part for lying under oath in a separate investigation.

Respect for the rule of law dictates that Libby not receive a presidential pardon, as some in the GOP have advocated, Hutchinson said.

“ I do not believe there should be a pardon for ‘ Scooter’ Libby. In order for democracy to succeed, the rule of law cannot be weakened. … While we can have great sympathy (for Libby personally ), the fact is that he was convicted of perjury. The system worked, ” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson is a wingnut with whom I would disagree politically on virtually everything. He was shameless during the Clinton impeachment. But he is at least living in the same dimension with the rest of us instead of the bizarroworld of the DC elite, where consistency is something that only applies to cake frosting. “Law and order” Republicans clutching their pearls about poor little Scooter is absurd and makes the GOP candidates seem odd and out of touch. It flies in the face of everything they allegedly stand for. (Hollywood Fred especially, the man who plans to win on the basis of his acting role as the manly Manhattan DA, has gone completely around the bend defending lil’ Scooter.)

I believe that Democrats should go after the Republican candidates about this all the way to the election. It makes them look like soft, effete insiders and defenders of the failed presidency of George W. Bush. Wringing their tiny hankies over one of their rich and powerful friends while they talk tough about crime and terrorism just doesn’t scan. They took a weak position and the Democrats shouldn’t let them forget it.

H/T to BB

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