President Bush's early start on celebrating Independence Day by liberating I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a stay in a federal penitentiary is one of those maddening hypocrisies that has so many Americans yearning for our own independence from George W. Bush on Jan. 20, 2009.

Declaring that the 2 1/2-year prison sentence Libby got for perjury and obstruction of justice in the investigation of a leak outing a CIA agent was too harsh, Bush commuted the sentence hours after an appeals court ruled that the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney must start serving his time.

Never mind that Libby was sentenced under the same guidelines as other federal convicts. Never mind that the judge who handed down what he thought was a fair sentence was Bush's own appointee to the bench, a Republican who served in the White House during his father's administration.

The hypocrisy is the president's sudden concern about "excessive" criminal penalties. This from a guy who has shown no mercy when it comes to meting out punishment to folks facing jailhouse doors — or worse — who don't happen to be members of his administration.

As governor of Texas, he carried out a record 152 executions in his four years, not only sanctioning the ultimate penalty more times than anybody else, but also going out of his way to fast-track the executions before condemned prisoners could offer evidence about DNA, diminished mental capacity or poor legal representation that might have altered their sentences.

In its final 18 months, the Bush Justice Department is busily trying to bring a federal death penalty prosecution to Hawai'i just to force an execution on one of the 12 remaining non-death penalty states. It seems to offend the president and his men that we abolished the death penalty here a half-century ago.

Bush's fixation with death tends to make his concerns about the harshness of Scooter Libby's sentence ring hollow, along with his assurances that Libby still faces stiff punishment with a $250,000 fine he has to pay and the damage to his professional reputation.

Right. Does anybody doubt that rich friends of the administration who raised $5 million to finance Libby's defense will see to it that his fine is paid and that he finds comfortable employment?

Besides, Bush refuses to rule out eventually granting Libby a full pardon, as his father did for the six key figures in the Iran-Contra scandal. With the commutation of Libby's prison sentence, top officials of the Bush administration are skating away without accountability for the illegal leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, which she believes was intended to settle a political score with her husband for his criticism of Bush's Iraq policy.

Libby wasn't charged with leaking the information — only lying about the leak. Those suspected of actually sanctioning and executing the leak, including Bush political adviser Karl Rove and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, never faced charges. Bush and Cheney themselves were also questioned by the special prosecutor about their roles.

Bush diehards are no doubt sharpening their pencils by now for their usual accusations that I "hate America" because I take issue with the president's hypocrisy.

All I can tell them is that George W. Bush is not America. In fact, polls suggest that fewer than a third of Americans still regard this arrogant man who has driven us off course at home and abroad as an admirable symbol of the great things our country stands for.

That's the good, patriotic judgment I'll be celebrating when I light my Fourth of July fireworks.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.