Pardon Me?

In a shocking turn of events today, President Bush commuted the 30-Month prison sentence handed down to ex-Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. As you may remember he was found guilty of lying to federal investigators during the investigation into of the leaking of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

In a statement released after a federal appeals court decided that Libby would have to begin serving his sentence while awaiting the outcome of further appeals, President Bush noted that while he "respected" the original verdict in the Libby case, he thought it was too harsh, so he changed it (to be read, "didn't respect the jury's decision at all").

I am actually kind of shocked. I really did think that the Administration was going to hang "the other Scooter" out to dry on this one. After all, what good is a fall guy if he doesn't actually take the fall? I guess I was wrong for having faith in the system and for actually believing that someone in this Administration might actually be held accountable for their actions (granted, I don't really think Scooter is to blame for Plame-gate, and he is sort of a Cheney's pawn, but he did LIE in a federal investigation, which is, uh, pretty bad, and he should in fact be held accountable for that). It is like my old friend Dubya used to say "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...uh...you can't get fooled again".

'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'!

Scooter Libby: Still Guilty

If you were watching Brit Hume yesterday, you might be a little confused about whether or not Scooter Libby was actually convicted of two counts of perjury, one count of obstructing justice in a grand jury investigation, and one count of making false statements to federal investigators. We are here to tell you that he was in fact convicted, he does in fact face prison time, and he is NOT the Scooter that writes this awesome blog. All I can think is that FOX NEWS makes up their fair and balanced graphics in some sort of magical fantasy design studio and assume that they live in a world where if they put it on the air, it becomes true. That might have worked for the 2000 Presidential Election, but it isn't going to help the other Scooter avoid the clink.

*Thanks to Howlingjay for the tip!