The Libby Sentence: Burning Questions
For one day at least, God is in his heaven and all is right with the world. In Washington, Judge Reggie Walton sentenced former Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby to serve 30 months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine for his perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame affair.
But while that issue of meting out justice to one of the perpetrators of the outing of a covert CIA operative and the selling of the Iraq war was settled today, other burning questions remain:
How many of the candidates at tonight's Republican presidential debate will resort to the usual "criminalization of politics" defense and call for Scooter Libby's pardon?
Will Watergate legend, Law and Order star, Libby Defense Fund advisor/fundraiser and soon-to-be presidential candidate Fred Thompson offer to pay Scooter's fine? Will Thompson repeat his May 12 call for a pardon?
Will Judge Walton let Libby remain free on bond while pending appeal? According to FireDogLake, we won't know until next week. The answer to that question may well determine whether President Bush pardons Libby now - or later.
How will the American people react to Libby's punishment? After all, the blogosphere recommended much stiffer retribution in the "Sentence Scooter Contest."
Will virtually the entire conservative chattering class continue to deny that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA agent even though CIA documents submitted to the court confirmed her status?
Does Libby's wife Harriet Grant, who reportedly cried throughout today's proceeding, still believe "We're gonna f**k 'em," as she claimed when her husband was convicted on March 6th?
For all the latest Libby/Plamegate news, documents, legal developments and other essential materials, see "The Plamegate CIA Leak Documents Center."
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Libby's wife has been hanging out with Dick Cheney too much.
Posted by Gordon on June 5, 2007 12:25 PMOne question you left out is what role President Bush played in all this.
Posted by Chris on June 5, 2007 2:29 PM