To play the King

With ironic timing President Bush has commuted the sentence of Lewis Libby just ahead of the 4 July holiday. The day when Americans remember the principled stand against tyranny, and in particular against a British king who was said to have "obstructed the administration of justice" in that famous document of 1776. Two hundred years later and new country that was born has a head of state who can arrogate the rule of law for reasons of blatant personal expediency. I'm not sure what John Hancock et al would have made of that.