'Jericho' Has Better Fan Base than Scooter Libby

Fans of the CBS apocalyptic drama 'Jericho' have proven once again that Americans care more about TV than their government.

Our favorite fall guy Scooter Libby was sentenced this week to 30 months in prison for perjury and obstructing justice in a grand jury investigation, taking the brunt of the blame for the Bush Administration’s terrible plan to seek revenge on Joe Wilson (who you may remember from such government reports as “Iraq NOT Seeking to Obtain Yellowcake Uranium from Niger”) by outing his wife Valerie Plame as a CIA Operative.

In a parallel story, 'Jericho' was cancelled by CBS, taking the fall for the network's terrible decision to take great shows and stick months and months of re-runs in the middle of their seasons.

Before the judge handed down sentencing in the Libby case, 150 letters of support were entered into record on Scooter’s behalf. In the meantime, 114,107 people signed an online petition to keep ‘Jericho’ on the air. They then bombarded the CBS offices with thousands of phone calls, letters, and e-mails and sent the studio 50,000 lbs. of peanuts (in reference to some line from the show…don’t know, I don’t watch it. I only read the article because my mom LOVES it). ‘Jericho’ is coming back mid-season next year and the peanuts will be donated to charity. Scooter's fans seemed to only make the judge angry, he will not be returning mid-season or any season coming up anytime soon.

It is sort of sad to see Scooter head off to the slammer. While I think he made some bad decisions, I don’t think he is a terrible guy. I think that this comment from a letter submitted to the court AGAINST Mr. Libby says it all “Due to the crimes for which he was convicted, we may never know of the more substantial criminal activities for which he served as a firewall.”

And since we are here, this is the best quote I’ve read from the “We Puffy Heart Scooter” letters “Sadly I believe that Mr. Libby's premature departure from the Administration has been a major reason for the downward spiral of the situation in Iraq and the consuming mess in which we find ourselves today regarding that country” - Robert D. Blackwill, White House Aide. So THAT’S what went wrong in Iraq! My bad.

*Interesting side note, Dick Cheney did NOT send a letter of support for his good pal Scooter Libby. I guess it is 30 months where Cheney can sleep a little easier knowing that Scooter will be too busy "not getting shived" to call up Nancy Pelosi/Congress/the FBI and start chattin'!