Partisanship At Its Purest

In our paper today Sam Youngman reports that Bob Bauer, the Democratic lawyer whose services are retained by none other than Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), argued in a blog that liberals should want President Bush to pardon I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. With the news that Libby must appeal his conviction from prison, the drumbeat from conservatives will become noisier — and Bauer thinks progressives should join the chorus. Why, you might ask? Because then Bush will finally own the story. “Presidential fingerprints, so far nowhere to be found in this case, will surface at last, indelibly, on the pardon,” Bauer wrote on The Huffington Post yesterday. 

Bauer, who has an excellent record in Washington as a sharp strategist, is offering free advice to his party. But this is partisanship at its purest. Bauer is telling liberals that instead of wanting Libby to pay for lying they should want Bush to spring him so Bush can finally be tainted by the scandal. So what? So they can beat him up, hate him some more? Obama isn’t firing Bauer, just hoping people will know it isn’t the official position of his campaign.

Got that?