Obama aide wants Libby pardoned

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) top lawyer publicly made the case yesterday for a presidential pardon for convicted White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Obama general counsel Robert Bauer did not ask his boss, a presidential candidate, for permission to write the article, published on HuffingtonPost.com.

{mosads}But Obama’s campaign said the senator would not ask for Bauer’s resignation, adding that he is “still our lawyer.”

Obama’s campaign and Bauer told The Hill yesterday that Bauer was not speaking on behalf of Obama when he wrote the piece, and the blog entry carries a disclaimer to that effect.

“Never at any time have I written for a candidate or asked a candidate’s approval, and I have not done so in this instance,” Bauer told The Hill. “The truth of the matter is, to sound humbly, I’m just his lawyer.”

If Bush were to pardon Libby, convicted of lying and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak case of Valerie Plame, Obama supporters on the left and in the blogosphere would undoubtedly be outraged.

Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in an e-mail Wednesday: “Bob Bauer was speaking on his own behalf without consultation with the campaign. Sen. Obama’s position on ensuring that Libby is held accountable for breaking the law is clear.”

When asked if the campaign was concerned about supporters seeing Bauer’s post as being affiliated with Obama, Psaki said: “We are confident that people will recognize that Bob Bauer was speaking on his own behalf without consultation with the campaign.”

In his posting, entitled “The Progressive Case for a Libby Pardon,” Bauer laid out what he sees as the reason those on the left should want to see Bush intervene, presumably so the president would instantly become more involved in the scandal.

“A pardon is just what Bush’s opponents should want,” Bauer wrote. “A pardon brings the president into the heart of the case. It compels him to do what he has so far managed to avoid: accept in some way responsibility for the conduct of his Administration in communicating with the public about national security and in its treatment of dissent.”

Libby was recently sentenced to two and a half years in prison, and talk of his pardon has caused another collision between the left and right, with the former demanding justice and the latter desiring a pardon.

Bauer’s post is already sparking fury and raising more than a few questions in the blogosphere. At Firedoglake.com, Jane Hamsher writes, “So are we to accept that the General Counsel for the Obama campaign stepped out on his own in such a high profile way with such a hot button issue and the candidate had no knowledge of it?”

Another posting, from someone named Christy, said that Bauer’s comments could have a lasting effect on a would-be Obama administration.

“It also raises some interesting questions in terms of what he expects if Obama wins the campaign,” Christy writes. “Last I checked, people who work on campaigns generally hope to gain a position in a subsequent administration if their candidate wins … If Mr. Bauer thinks that the rule of law is malleable in terms of politically expedient questions of the moment, then we ought to be asking the questions now rather than in a confirmation hearing later, don’t you think?”

Bauer has represented other high-profile campaigns in the past, most notably former Sen. Bill Bradley’s (D-N.J.) 2000 presidential run, and he served as counsel to the Democratic leader in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.