The Evidence Of Things Conveniently Not Seen

I don't want to write too much here about The Shrub's ludicrous commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence, especially since I think most of us with empirical minds will agree that the Official Line is utter balderdash.  But Andrew Sullivan-- a conservative after all, though not a NeoCon, but a (gasp! Heaven forfend!) gay one at that-- says it best:

We now have a clear and simple illustration of the arrogance of this president. Tell the American people the core narrative of this monarchical presidency: this president believes he is above the law in wiretapping citizens with no court oversight; he has innovated an explosive use of signing statements to declare himself above the law on a bewildering array of other matters, large and small; he has unilaterally declared himself above American law, international law, and U.N. Treaty obligations in secretly authorizing torture; he has claimed the right to seize anyone in the United States, detain them indefinitely without trial and torture them; his vice-president refuses to abide by the law that mandates securing classified documents;  and when a court of law finds a friend of the president's guilty, he commutes the sentence.

Duh.  No offense to Andrew, but hasn't the evidence for this arrogance-- the clear and simple illustration of which-- been in superfluous availability for years?  Let's not pretend this is the first, or even the tenth, instance of indication.  And yet the press still-- still!-- refuses to Joseph Welch this serial perpetrator of mendacity.  He combines, in spectacular fashion, Nixon's corruption with Carter's ineptitude and Johnson's bluster.  Yet the gallery demures.  In the age of Conkrite or Murrow, this would not have gone unanswered; and in the age of Mencken.....