[Update at end of article]

Representative Robert Wexler (D-FL) may have the best answer to the Libby commutation scandal: censure President Bush. He has announced his intention in a press release, and intends to introduce the resolution this coming Tuesday, when Congress reconvenes.

Here is the full text of the resolution:

Resolution relating to the censure of George W. Bush

Whereas President George W. Bush has failed to comply with his obligations under Executive Order 12958 concerning the protection of classified national security information in that the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson as a Central Intelligence Agency operative was revealed to members of the media, and in June 2003 Bush Administration officials discussed with various reporters the identity of Ms. Wilson as a covert Central Intelligence Agency operative;

Whereas on July 14, 2003, the name of Ms. Wilson and her status as a CIA operative was revealed publicly in a newspaper column by Robert Novak, and on September 16, 2003 the Central Intelligence Agency advised the Department of Justice that Ms. Wilson’s status as a covert operative was classified information and requested a federal investigation;

Whereas knowingly leaking the identity of a covert agent is a criminal violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (P.L. 97-200);

Whereas Arthur Brown, former Asian Division chief of the CIA, stated that, “cover and tradecraft are the only forms of protection one has and to have that stripped away because of political scheming is the moral equivalent to exposing forward deployed military units”;

Whereas Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, effectively stopped the investigation into this potentially grave national security crime by lying to FBI investigators, and Mr. Libby’s perjury shielded the Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush from further inquiry;

Whereas on March 6, 2007, in U.S. District Court a jury found Mr. Libby guilty on four counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI investigators regarding an investigation into the actions of the White House regarding leaking the identity of Ms. Wilson in retaliation for her husband’s contention that the Bush administration twisted intelligence facts to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq;

Whereas on June 5, 2007, Mr. Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000;

Whereas President George W. Bush had appointed both the Special Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, and the US District Court Judge, Reggie Walton, who were involved in the trial of Mr. Libby;

Whereas in February 2004, President George W. Bush stated that if anyone in his Administration “has violated [the] law, that person will be taken care of”;

Whereas on July 2, 2007, President Bush commuted the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison;

Whereas in commuting Mr. Libby’s sentence, President Bush has finally and unalterably breached any remaining shred of trust that he had left with the American people and rewarded political loyalty while flouting the rule of law: Now, therefore let be it —

Resolved, That the United States Congress does hereby censure George W. Bush, President of the United States, and does condemn his decision to commute the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison, his unconscionable abuse of his authority with regard to the deceitful chain of events concerning the falsifying intelligence on Iraqi nuclear capabilities and the exaggeration of the threat posed by Iraq, his involvement in the clear political retaliation against former Ambassador and Ms. Wilson, and his decision to reward the perjury of Mr. Libby, which effectively protected President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other Administration officials from further scrutiny.

That last "Whereas" paragraph is a doozy.

In other Scooter news, Jeralyn (blogging at TalkLeft) has an excellent rebuttal to the current White House talking point "but Clinton did it too..." where she points out that the Marc Rich pardon was indeed the subject of congressional hearings, that Clinton allowed his aides to testify, waiving all executive privilege claims, and that Clinton had consulted with the Justice Department about the pardon.

I'm not defending the Marc Rich pardon, merely pointing out that since the Bush White House is defending their actions by comparing them to Clinton, then they shouldn't have a problem treating congressional committees in the same fashion, right?

One of their other talking points is that he's a family man and going to prison would destroy their family (or something along those lines). Quite a while back, the New Yorker magazine did a salacious review of Scooter's 1996 fiction writing effort, the book "The Apprentice." Funny, I don't remember locking 10-year-old girls in a cage containing a bear trained in rape being often mentioned as a shining example of "Republican family values."

Here's the relevant quote from Scooter's book:

At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest.

The rest of the article is equally disgusting. Don't read it unless you've got a strong stomach.

In conclusion, while I don't know what the chances are of successfully censuring Bush, at this point it does seem to be the best option. Censure him and move on. Congress has the Iraq war and the entire Pentagon's budget on their plate this month, which they need to focus on.

[Had enough of Scooter? Me too. Next week will be all about the presidential race, I promise!]

[Update:]

Rep. Wexler has his own article now posted at the Huffington Post where he explains his censure reasoning.