for helping to restore some of my faith in the judicial system.

In terms of the pardon. If someone is convicted for obstructing justice and participating in a cover up, why would you pardon the person if he's still covering up the underlying crime?

Doesn't that mean the pardon is just compounding the cover up?

Poor poor Scooter. Oh boo hoo.

Now he's either going to:

1. Do his time, keep his mouth shut, and then cash in after he gets out with multi-million dollar jobs serving on boards, and attending once a year board of directors meetings at tropical locations, with companies that are FOD ("Friends of Dick") -- i.e., Haliburton, Blackwater, etc.
2. Start squealing like a stuck pig, and bring down Dick and Dubya and the rest of the criminals running our country, which could actually be quite satisfying, even from behind bars
3. Get a pardon, so that he doesn't start squealing and implicate said criminals...
   
   

Wonder which way it'll go...anyone have any guesses?

I figure the pardon was written up and is already wending its way to wherever it needs to go to be formally filed...

That's when the countdown actually began. Good for Judge walton. If he places similar felons into prison why not this one? Boy, can he kiss his Presidential Medal of Freedom good-bye...

mail box faster than a Net-Flix movie rental...

first

the President will pardon Libby and show is disdain for the rule of Law. Period.

ssia

4:58 PM, EST, July 3, or two minutes after Jack Welch's jet leaves Reagan Nat'l for Nantucket, with Monsignor Russert, Tweety and Brian Williams on board (that's like, a metaphor).

Judges try hard to not allow their handling of criminal defendants be influenced by outside factors; yet I can't help wondering if the threats reportedly received by this Gop-appointed judge served to acquaint him with the viciousness and utter lawlessness of the Gop's neo-fascist right wing. In any event, this judge clearly refused to be bullied by the radical right.

Tom Daschle, the Great Appeaser who I otherwise detest, once said he always knew when Rush Limbaugh was attacking him, because the number of death threats against him and his family would spike. Limbaugh rails against Reid and Pelosi a lot; why do they still seem blissfully unaware of the real threat to the American Republic posed by the radical right?

Tragic. Not.

former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney will be required to report to a federal penitentiary sometime within the next few weeks

While this is great news, how much better it would be without the words "former chief of staff to" in there.

A boy can dream, can't he?

I am old enough to remember the many Republicans who rode into office decrying the lack of "law and order." Nixon used this appeal effectively to scare Americans to vote for him after the chaos of 1968. Ronald Reagan used it effectively to convince every Southern cracker that the blacks/browns were getting away with murder, literally. We all remember Willie Horton and George the First.

Mark it down: he'll not spend 2.5 months in prison, much less 2.5 years. It's law and order for you and me, but none for Scooter Libby.

that Libby is the one going to the slam. Cheney and Bush and Gonzalez and Rice and Addington and Wolfowitz and Yoo and Rumsfeld and Rove are more guilty of far worse crimes than anything Libby ever did.

THEY ought to be doing the perp walk..

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will

1. keep Libby out of jail pending appeal (this won't take long), and

2. later on, reverse the conviction (pick a convenient time - my guess is after the big round of Republican primaries next winter, it'll be old news by then).

The rent on those judges' chairs is coming due, and it ain't cheap. But it's got to be paid.

No pardon.

Bush has yet to show that he gives a shit for anyone else's problems, so why would he start now?

He probably thinks Libby betrayed him by not shooting himself in the head.

Will Bush lose more of his base if he doesn't pardon Libby? Yes, but Bush doesn't care.

The DC Court of Appeals will probably not block Libby from going to prison.

The reason?

The CoA's do not have to kiss anyone's ass-judgeships are for life; judges are appointed by the president and approved by Congress. They have nobody to please, except perhaps the SC, who can review their decisions.

It is very rare that the SC reverses any CoA decision unless the government has a very compelling reason to appeal it-it usually has to be a constitutional or very important statutory ruling thing to get their attention, too.

Individual appeals are rarely heard, and the vast majority are rejected before the next court sits.

Good-bye Scooter, it was a nice job while you had it.

Go ahead, George, make my day! Be the self-fulfilling prophecy you are! Please...pardon Scooter and the rest of his ilk who will, eventually, feel a judge's wrath. That's what we all expect that you will do. Don't go and disappoint us, now, by going and doing the right thing, ok?

Your "respect" for the rule of law is well-known: you have condoned wholesale torture, have withdrawn the centuries-old practice of habeas corpus, have foisted the egregious Patriot Act upon us and renditioned people to secret prisons across the globe without any hope of a fair trial.

Yeah. Sure. You "respect" the rule of law, all right. Pah!

Right now Congress can't call Libby as a witness and force him to testify about Plame and related matters, because there's still a possibility of a new trial. If he's pardoned, his 5th amendment privelege vanishes. Congress could then call him to testify. So he's not going to get pardoned.