As I pointed out earlier, the president’s decision to save his delicate friend from even one day behind bars will provide many years of fun for defense attorneys.
One of the attorneys at TalklLeft shared this anecdote:
I had a conversation with a prosecutor today about a two level enhancement for obstruction on a client in custody. I told her that the Executive Branch doesn’t count obstruction as a jailable offense, so he should not get the two level enhancement.
She was not amused.
Ha ha, pretty funny. Via Steve Benen, the same argument will soon show up in a courtroom near you.
In commuting I. Lewis Libby Jr.’s 30-month prison sentence on Monday, President Bush drew on the same array of arguments about the federal sentencing system often made by defense lawyers — and routinely and strenuously opposed by his own Justice Department.
[…] Perhaps inadvertently, Mr. Bush’s decision to grant a commutation rather than an outright pardon has started a national conversation about sentencing generally.“By saying that the sentence was excessive, I wonder if he understood the ramifications of saying that,” said Ellen S. Podgor, who teaches criminal law at Stetson University in St. Petersburg, Fla. “This is opening up a can of worms about federal sentencing.”
The Libby clemency will be the basis for many legal arguments, said Susan James, an Alabama lawyer representing Don E. Siegelman, the state’s former governor, who is appealing a sentence he received last week of 88 months for obstruction of justice and other offenses.
“It’s far more important than if he’d just pardoned Libby,” Ms. James said, as forgiving a given offense as an act of executive grace would have had only political repercussions. “What you’re going to see is people like me quoting President Bush in every pleading that comes across every federal judge’s desk.”
Indeed, Mr. Bush’s decision may have given birth to a new sort of legal document.
“I anticipate that we’re going to get a new motion called ‘the Libby motion,’ ” Professor Podgor said. “It will basically say, ‘My client should have got what Libby got, and here’s why.’ ”
Ha ha. Sigh.
taoless
if there is that unintended consequence to bush’s legalistic hair-splitting, then i think that can’t help but be a good thing. while i do not object to the feds publishing sentencing guidelines, the notion of mandatory minimums has always struck me as unfair and more likely to lead to a miscarriage of justice than to any sort of across-the-board fairness in sentencing. after all, if we can’t trust judges to exercise discretion in sentencing, then what is the point of judges?
if we can’t, or won’t, trust their judgement, then we oughtta call ’em something else. magistrates, maybe.
Punchy
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say….uh…No, he did not.
Indeed, everything after the comma in the above quote could be applied to about 149 different dumbfuck things he’s spewed.
ThymeZone
What a country! The mob roars for Paris Hilton to go to jail, and the president lets a corrupt high official out of jail. Surely the world is getting a kick out of this.
Meanwhile, is it my imagination, or did Bush’s presidency basically end yesterday? I don’t think he can recover from this. Even Barney won’t go near him now.
Chad N. Freude
Nothing the prez sez has ramifications. Every utterance is unique and applies only to the particular situation of which he speaks.This is the reason his contradictory statements and lies are actually fully consistent and truthful, and why he can walk away with a blissfully clear conscience from any catastrophes attributed to him by those who don’t understand this.
Chad N. Freude
It’s your imagination. He’s still got a year and a half to start another war, continue shredding the Constitution under the protection of the InJustice Department, and thumb his nose at Congress. Since these are the foundations of his presidency, it’s hardly over.
Chad N. Freude
Correction. I misspoke.
grumpy realist
Considering that Bush’s entire life has been a case of screwing things up and walking away from the consequences, what else is new?
The blowback from this one should be amusing, though. Especially watching the DOJ try to cope with the effects.
And defence lawyers must be laughing their asses off.
Chris Johnson
It’s sort of like landing a big fish. When he does obnoxious things you hang in there, when he inadvertently helps you, you reel in like a maniac laughing the whole way. This will surely be happening. You’ve got to use Bush’s incoherency against him.
People liked him being dumb only when they thought he’d be faithful.
ConservativelyLiberal
I love the order just put out by Judge Walton. Since Libby will not serve a single day in jail, can he even be put on probation? After all, the law states that the supervised probation starts the day after incarceration ends. Since that is not happening, what now?
The footnote in the order is a hoot! I read it as saying that the judge is asking the prosecution or the defense to approach the White House and to get their opinion on the law and how it should be interpreted in light of the commutation.
Shorter Judge Walton: Since the law, the court and myself are of no consequence, would Mr. Bush care to step in and just take over the show?
I love how Walton points out in the order that Bush himself (who he quotes) said that Scooter will be serving the probation, yet Bush may have voided that by his own actions.
What an incompetent ass we have for a president. ‘Rule of law’ means only what each word says. Rule, of, law. Three simple words that have absolutely no meaning, even when combined without commas. It sounds pretty, but means absolutely nothing to them.
They play lip service to the Constitution and our system of laws. They have absolutely no respect for either. Loyalty to party and the prez/vice prez is all that matters, loyalty to country is completely absent.
Impeach, now… Please!!! End the reign of stupid and restore some honor to our country.
Bob In Pacifica
Can Barry Bonds’ trainer now be released from federal detention? After all, shouldn’t he be out so that he can see 756? Hell, the White House even fired the federal prosecutor for Northern Cali. I sense a convergence on this.
jake
Maybe he’ll be the test case.
If he goes before Congress with a get tough on crime bill I fully expect to hear the gales of laughter from my house.
ThymeZone
You could be right. But I’ve been predicting for a long time that this year is when the sane portion of the GOP membership on the Hill starts to turn against the potatoheads. Look, these guys are not crazy and they are like all members of congress: Their first priority is reelection. And two guys named Bush and Cheney are going to take that away from them, and …. they know it.
I think this Libby thing is going to be a tipping point. I think those moderate Goopers have had enough. I think they come back from vacation and start planning their own futures, which do not include a Bush legacy.
If you are Warner, how much more of this shit can you take? His silence right now speaks volumes.
Chad N. Freude
“Consultation with the Justice Department? I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ consultation with the Justice Department.”
Fortunately, Bush and his advisors don’t need to worry about what the law says or how it works, because they make it up as they go along. Including the lawyers.
Chad N. Freude
TZ –
Your point is well taken, but don’t forget that (1) the polls have shown that voters dislike everybody else’s Congresspersons but they love theirs, and (2) the Mudstream Media are pretty good at feeding irrelevant and/or false negatives to the all-too-accepting voters.
jake
More like: You fuck with me, I fuck back, harder.
Think about it. Libby’s lawyers were probably on their 5th bottle of champagne when the call came saying Walton wants arguments on a complex and un-chartered area of the law on Monday. Do you think these guys were planning to do any work for the rest of the week? I would have loved to see the looks on their faces.
And Libby can kiss a bit more of his legal defense fund bye-bye.
Not only does this order negate Bush’s contention that he debated long and hard before commuting the sentence, if it’s determined that Libby shouldn’t even serve probation, it sucks more stale air out of the already stupid “Thirty months was too harsh (so he can’t serve so much as a day),” argument.
If Bush says “OK, I’ll commute his probation” that’s another chunk out of the “We’re tough on crime,” facade. And I imagine if he does that, Walton will say “What about the fine?” If he commutes the fine, “How is this different from a pardon?”
And what happens if it’s decided Libby has effectively been fully pardoned?
Walton isn’t asking Bush to take over the show, he’s forcing someone to clean up the mess Bush made (and putting the screws on Bush while he’s at it) and you can bet he’s laughing right now.
Wilfred
Fun and Music:
Everybody’s gettin’ a brand new chance now
(C’mon baby do the Libby-motion)
I know you’ll get to like it
If you give it a chance now
(C’mon baby do the Libby-motion)
A slick K street pimp can do it with ease
It’s easier than finding w m d’s
So come on, come on,
Do the Libby-motion with me
You gotta grab your socks now
Come on baby, jump up, hmmm jump back
Oh well I think you got the knack
Now that you can do it
Let’s make a chain now
(C’mon baby do the Libby-motion)
Bum-fuck the country like a runaway train now
(C’mon baby do the Libby-motion)
Do it nice and easy now don’t lose panache
A little bit of pouting and a ton of cash
So come on, come on,
Do the Libby-motion with me
You gotta seal your lips now
Come on, come on,
Do the Libby-motion with me.
Yeah.
ConservativelyLiberal
Winifred…
Getting screwed to the tune of Locomotion (by Grand Funk Railroad) with lyrics like those sounds about right…
Love the revisions, now put it to music for us!
;)
ThymeZone
True, but what they love most of all is conflict. If the tipping point is reached and Bush is in a fight for his presidency, the media will turn on him. They always kick people who are down. That’s their M.O.
Once the Warners of the world turn on Bush, the mediasheep will be bleating at him constantly. They don’t care, they would shit on Jesus if it got them two ratings points.
Chad N. Freude
Fixed.
Chad N. Freude
Fixeder.
Punchy
What’s just stunning is that, as someone said before, that every single player in this incident was a Republican. Fitz, Walton (appointed by Bush!), Wilson, Libby, ect. And yet they still scream “unfair!” and, just amazingly, “partisan witchhunt!”….
If these last two years of the Bush fiefdom doesn’t destroy the country, I suspect they’ll be a huge new slew of Democratic Atty Gens, judges, and lawyers….
Rome Again
Well, Jesus (YYM) is used to working with fertilizer, isn’t he?
ThymeZone
Yes, since Bush, he is very versed in bullshit.
Rome Again
Nah, he was versed in bullshit since long before Georgie came along.
Rome Again
Yes! God couldn’t have planned it any better. The 28%’ers (or it is 26% now?) are rendered total fools.
I look forward to the new changes in store for us.
Joe1347
It’s pretty sad that the best that we can hope for out of the Bush Admin over the next 18 months is to pray that they don’t start dropping Nuclear Bombs on our “enemies”.
conumbdrum
Warning: Anal Retentive Music Geekdom Ahead.
Um. “The Loco-Motion” was, of course, not composed by Grand Funk (who had dropped the word “Railroad” from their monicker several years earlier, by the way), but by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, inspired by a dance that their babysitter Eva Boyd used to do around the house. They got Eva to do the vocal on their subsequent demo of the song, and label boss Don Kirshner dug the demo so much that he decided to release it as it was. Eva was dubbed “Little Eva” for the resulting 45 which, being a dance simple enough to appeal to clumsy white teenagers everywhere, topped the pop charts in 1962. Grand Funk’s spirited if less groovy rendition would also reach the Number One position, twelve years later.
This has been a Music Geek Independence Day Minute. You may now return to your regularly scheduled Bush-fuelled rage…
Sri Ramkrishna
I wonder what the chances are that Bush would perform his coup de grace and bomb Iran. I’m sure Cheney wants to do one last hit on the presidential bong and do that. Then he can blame the democrats for being weak after they try to clean up his mess.
With our luck, it’ll be Hillary getting elected and it’ll be another 8 years of the same shit. Just replace Clinton with Bush in “Well, Clinton did it!”.
sri
Downpuppy
sane portion of the GOP membership on the Hill,
Cmon kids! You know what to do!
I do believe…
The Other Steve
You missed the Judge Walton court order… where basically he pointed out that while Bush said Libby would still have to face parole, the US Law says you can’t be paroled unless you’ve served jail time.
So he is asking for input from the lawyers as to what they should do about this, and there’s a footnote that they are more than welcome to ask the Whitehouse for any input they might have.
It’s astounding the incompetence of Team Bush, that they did not think through the ramifications of their actions.
Chad N. Freude
Re Judge Walton’s court order – Read the footnote! Thanks for the pointer Other Steve. Thankyouthankyouthankyou.
craigie
Fixed.
rachel
There, I fixed that for you.
Andrew
sane portion of the GOP membership on the Hill
I don’t know what Republicans you’ve been seeing for the last 6 or 10 or 20 years, but there don’t seem to be a whole lot of “sane” ones.
TAX ANALYST
Hope you are right, TZ…but the best I can muster is very, very guarded optimism. Most of the Republicans in Congress have been nose-down and carrying Bush’s water for so long they might go blind if they looked up to see what was happening. “Shock & Awe” comes home…
TAX ANALYST
I hope you’re right, TZ…but the best I can muster right now is some very, very guarded optimism. These guys have been nose-down and carrying Bush’s water for so long that they might go blind if they looked up to see what was actually happening around them.
“Shock & Awe” comes home…
TAX ANALYST
I hope you’re right, TZ…but the best I can muster right now is some very, very guarded optimism. These guys have been nose-down and carrying Bush’s water for so long that they might go blind if they looked up to see what was actually happening around them.
“Shock & Awe” comes home…
TAX ANALYST
That’s not bad, Wilfred. You ought to go post it on a Parody Website. Try “amiright.com”, but make sure you’ve covered all the Original Song lyrics first if you want good scores.
TAX ANALYST
That’s not bad, Wilfred. You ought to go post it on a Parody Website. Try “amiright.com”, but make sure you’ve covered all the Original Song lyrics first if you want good scores.
TAX ANALYST
OOPS! I didn’t think that comment I made back to TZ went when I clicked “Submit”…my screen just hung there and for a couple minutes so I clicked it again…and then again…
Zifnab
And even in ’06, alot of them got reelected if they were in ‘safe’ districts because… hey, they’re no Democrats right? You’re starting to see the wheels come of the “campaign finance reform” bus with that last SCOTUS decision on the matter, and from there its a straight shot to astroturfing and swiftboating on epic proportions. Forget the Fairness Doctrine, the Dems are going to have to fight like hell to get a word in edgewise before the Republican smear machine really starts churning out the bullshit.
I think it’s going to be hard for any Republican Senator to turn against the wingnut base when the mega-corps and the religo-wackos really turn on the power they can weld with unlimited money and unlimited lying. Has anyone but me seen the ridiculous number of adds for “clean coal” – which has about the same ring as “healthy forests” and “clear skies”? Do we all remember the anti-Stem Cell ads in the Superbowl where James Caviezel got to speak at us in tongues? And who can forget the CEI “We Call It Life” ads, which might have been comical if they weren’t so sad?
Wilfred
They don’t even need to smear. They’ll just crank out the image of America as a knock-kneed, 12 year old girl about to get dragged off into crack-whoredom by the turban-troopers, despite having a mega-gazillion weapons warehouse. Cue to: “Oh, Mr. Muslim never hangs around, when he hears this mighty sound: Here I come to save the day! That means that Jesus Boy is on his way!”
Cut to Fred Thompson descending to earth, using his own flatulence to soften the landing.
Repeat as needed.
semper fubar
Cut to Fred Thompson descending to earth, using his own flatulence to soften the landing.
Man o man, that is the funniest line I’ve read on the intertoobz in a long time.
DougJ
Well, at least we know Fred Thompson would never leak anything sensitive.
Who knew rats smelled like Aqua Velva or whatever is older men shave with?
Jake
Georgie Bush: I thought long and hard before deciderating on this here decision.
Professor Walton: Show your work.
Has fRightieville started the Impeach Judge Walton campaign yet?
Cyrus
Seriously? I’m surprised and curious. I would have assumed that a president’s statements expounding on why he does something — reduces a sentence by executive fiat, in this case — carry no more legal weight than a signing statement. Well, that’s a bad example these days, but you get the idea. Defense attorneys may make “the Libby motion” and have it granted, but when that happens would it be relying on an actual valid legal argument, or would it just be a case of the judge or jury being stupid and bloody-minded?
ThymeZone
I hear ya. I just keep coming back to my First Principle of Understanding Congress: Every member’s first thought in the morning is, will I get reelected?
I think we will soon see how self-interest has the power to cut through the thick layers of crap created by the Bush-Cheney Reich.
Remember, the whole American Experiment is tied to the idea that in the end, people will see, and choose in favor of, their own interests. Without that, the Experiment will fail. Personally, I have great faith in the idea still.
Dreggas
Speaking of Libby, anyone catch Olbermann’s special comment on it? Fan-fucking-tastic.
As cynical and pessimistic as I am (just ask my wife) I agree with TZ, but I don’t think that it will only be the congress critters starting to turn (for self interest or otherwise), the public will just get even angrier about this. Not to beat the dead horse WRT Paris Hilton but people were pissed when she wasn’t going to do jail time and now it’s the same thing with Libby. He was convicted and should be locked up which is what I have been hearing from a lot of people lately. Some might think this is somehow obscured but it’s been the so-called “talk around the water cooler” so to speak.
Jake
We’ll have a better idea after the 9th. Depending on what both parties submit (and I imagine there will be a hearing at a later date) def. lawyers may be able to use something from those arguments, rather than the president’s order.
Walton may be trying to push this up to the USSC. Or he may be giving the Presidential goolies a twist. Or both.
Popcorn?
Rome Again
Excuse me, TZ, if I fear that whole experiment is falling apart and those who are in the top echelons of power just don’t care whether the electorate is smart and votes anymore.
Personally, I’m getting to the point where I feel voting might be better off being a licensed privelege, where you take a test to show you’re spent some time learning of how the damn thing works before you fuck with it.
::jumping off the soapbox now::
I wish I had your optimism, alas I do not.
ThymeZone
I hear ya. It’s hard to look at the Potatohead Government and still think that this thing can work. But the beauty part is, the whole Experiment is aimed at giving us the opportunity to change the government. As bad as it is, we can still change it. As long as that is true, we have a chance to make it work. No matter how badly they fuck it up, and they will, we can throw them all out and start over in any given 6-year cycle. That’s a fabulous thing.
Zifnab
That’s the game, isn’t it? Do people know what’s good for them. 230 years ago, it was perhaps a lot easier to judge. Now, I think there’s much more bullshit for people to wade through.
I share Rome Again’s skepticism. I honestly don’t know if the American People realize what benefits them individually the most.
Rome Again
Okay, I don’t really mean this, I’m just getting frustrated. Carry on!
ThymeZone
Yes, but that’s a good news, bad news thing. The good news is that people today have more information, and more access to information, and more capacity to discern information, than any people in history, by such a huge margin, it’s almost off the scale.
In one hour you can help yourself to more good information than our ancestors only a few generations ago could have availed themselves of in an entire lifetime.
The responsibility that goes with that is that we must learn to discern, to question, to think critically, and to choose responsibly. To know where the boundaries are between self interest and common interest.
Hey, it sounds hard, but AFAIC, it’s exciting and I am very lucky to be alive now instead of a hundred years ago.
Dreggas
Not unsuprisingly it was just as hard 230 years ago. I watched quite a bit of “The Revolution” on the History channel yesterday (and stayed at a holiday inn express har-har) and people faced the same kinds of decisions based on whether to be a patriot or loyalist. Patriots had it all the harder because they were “the rebels” so to speak. The times may be different and the shit may look different but it’s still the same shit.
ThymeZone
That’s why we call it the American Experiment. It’s an ongoing challenge.
Great successs and abject failure are both right there, for the taking. Are we men, or mice? I’ll take that set of possibilities any time over guaranteed mediuminess.
Zifnab
Well, right. But you were fighting for taxes and voting privileges and land ownership back then. Now people get swept up in fights over fetal rights and carbon taxes. It’s a completely different ball game and lying to you about raising emissions standards over a 20 year period is a lot easier than convincing you that a Stamp Tax imposed by an administration on the other side of the ocean you can’t vote for isn’t fair. Life was simpler back then. Issues were simpler. Admittedly, people were dumber, too.
Zifnab
What’s the old saying? Democracy is the worst system in the world, except for all the others.
ThymeZone
Right, they get swept up because manipulators push emotional buttons that cause voters to lose sight of what their real interests are, and get caught up in phony “interests” that are based in demagoguery.
But see, that’s the whole point. When people learn to discern what their real interests are, when they figure out that the feelgood snake oil purveyors are selling lies, they bounce back. Or at least enough of them do to effect change. It’s a two-sided coin, this freedominess thing. We are totally free to fuck it all up. But that means we are totally free to get it right, too.
Yay. God Bless America, etc.
Rome Again
Yeah, but that takes work. People are so tired of being worked that they want fun. They’ll take entertainment on television before they’ll take an hour of research. ARGH!
ThymeZone
Well, there’s always The Wire. In just two seasons worth of episodes, you can figure out whether it’s a good show or not :)
Now THAT’S entertainment!
binzinerator
This whole foolish decision to commute Scootie’s sentence without apparent regard for how it would affect our entire legal system is just so fucking typical Bush Republican.
For example, what exactly were these bozos thinking of when they used torture? Or presumed suspects to be guilty until proven innocent (then denied them the possibility of even trying). Had they never considered the ramifactions of those actions?
Just like this commutation, they weren’t thinking. Or, likely, it’s just that they didn’t give a hoot in hell. They made it up as they went along, expediency with a seemingly religious-like conviction that any consequences simply would not affect them.
So of the torutured and imprisoned, innocent and guilty alike, all will have the same fate if our legal system recovers and remains true to the rule of law: All will go free.
How can they not, if they are tried under a system that still values due process? How can such a system recognize evidence gained by threats? What can be said of a confession made under torture? Of demands for death or imprisonment based on circumstantial evidence and hearsay? Of beatings and forced ice baths and days of sleep deprivation? Because of the methods insisted on by Bush for obtaining evidence against terror suspects, how can reasonable people not have reasonable doubts?
Bush and his fools have made it so there are two possible outcomes: 1) The guilty go free because they were not handled by the legal stardards of our justice system. Or, worse, and what I fear the most, 2) that they change the legal system to make this — the torture, flimsy circumstantial evidence, hearsay and violation of due process — acceptable. In otherwords, the Bush freaks have set it up so the only way the ones who are really guilty of anything get what they deserve is to scrap the core premises of our justice system.
Does anyone see an irony in obtaining justice by destroying justice? (I have come to believe the right wing is categorically unable to understand irony).
Jake is right, Walton is saying “show your work”. There was none, I am sure of it. So the Bushbags will simply make up asinine arguments that will in the end radically fuck up our legal system even more. What else is new here?
One of the terrible hidden consequences of all the bullshit and criminality of the Bushies has been to warp our legal system.
Think for a minute: Ten years ago if I had said the president of the United States can be appointed by the judiciary, who here would have taken me seriously? If I said a president has the legal right to trump all other branches — and law itself — if and when he decides he needs to, who here would have nodded in assent? Surely, readers everywhere would have recognized I was talking about monarchy, the claims of a despot, right? Surely some would have asked what country I was talking about, right? And if I said torture can and should be used by our nation and it is legally defensible, who would have thought I was worth even reading, let alone responding to? (And if those who might have asked on what legal grounds, exactly, was I referring to — well what would they say if my sole response was to say “Reread my previous point, on the limitlessness presidential power”?)
Those things would have been so far-fetched 10 years ago that the response in a forum like this one (if such a forum existed) would have been derision or incredulousness — or would have been ignored altogether, as one ignores street people who stand on street corners and shout to imaginary creatures.
But all those things have come to pass, promoted from the highest levels of government down to talkshow hosts, and they have all caused ripples in the legal system. And in how people in our society perceive our system.
I think there is not one significant institution in this nation that Bush and his republican assholes have not warped, both outright and in long-term hidden effects, like this commutation will have on truthfulness in every court.
This Bush and his followers have chopped at the very trunk of our entire legal system. Justice means nothing if we as a society come to view truth in our legal system as an option, and falehoods as without consequence.
“American justice” used to have positive connotations for most people. Perhaps it still does for most, but American justice is rapidly becoming a joke concept, an oxymoron. People as a society will soon come to distrust American justice, and the erosion of their belief in telling the truth will accelerate.
So much for the party of “Law and Order”. Fucking hypocrites. This is the Conservative Legacy. Sadly, only half of you deserve it.
ThymeZone
Yes, the Potatoheads have pretty much killed the “Conservative Movement.”
As movements go, I think only the Bowel Movement how has a lower standing.
Tax Analyst
TZ – Hey, you’re in a positive mood today, aren’t ya’? Good to see it…I can generate enough skepticism and gloom all by myself to darken small towns & villages. It seems as though the 4th of July has perhaps regenerated your enthusiasm…now if only we could find some way to spread and infect the general populace with the same “American Independence Day” virus…we’d have the Insane Bush Clown Posse out on their cans by the end of the year.
Jake
Au Contraire! The Bowel Movement is a sign of a healthy system. The current Conservative Movement, to take this analogy places it shouldn’t go, is the political equivalent of a prolonged bout of constipation. It is the sign of severe health problems and if not eliminated (ahem) can lead to death.
Tax Analyst
Well, then we’d all better be prepared, ’cause you know what happens when you finally unclog that constipation…that’s right..diarrhea…and then the shit hits the fan(s).
ThymeZone
Yes, America’s Birthday is inspiring.
As bad as we think it is right now, truth is, we are the luckiest sumbitches in the world here. Dont ya think?
I for one am not going to sit back and let these assclowns ruin my country permanently. It’s too good a thing to just give up on it.
Jake
Oo! I know! A flood of Regents University grads!
I beg your pardon. That was inexcusable.
Rome Again
Not according to Michael Moore.
binzinerator
A pardon! Damn you Scooter, can’t you wait until later?
Stop your begging. A commutation is all we can do for you now.
(Hey people, that’s a ‘very severe penalty’, so it’s not like Jake’s going unpunished, ya know.)