Jay at 16 — If Bush were going to pardon Libby this early in his Presidency, he would have done so prior to the trial beginning. To do so now would open the next two years to Congressional hearings and the civil suit that the Wilsons have filed. At this point, with the testimony that has already been given, any Libby pardon — if at all — will come at the end of Bush’s presidency to prevent the spectacle of hearing after hearing on the subject on the Hill with Bush holed up even more in the White House. Anything else is illogical (not that that has stopped Bush in the past, but the rest of the GOP has the 2008 elections to consider…)

I was wondering about pardons. Does one have to be convicted to get a pardon?

I must say though that I was a bit taken aback at your equanimity and general willingness to tolerate the sluggishness of folks dealing with Haldeman’s “gobbledegook.” Both from the standpoint of the horrific death-counts (thousands on one side, hundreds of thousands on the other, leaving out maimings, other physical injuries, psychological effects, and the almost-certain long-lasting cancerous effects of hundreds of tons of vaporized depleted-uranium)and the dramatic erosion of our former democratic tri-partite check-and-balance form of government, I feel a tone of far greater urgency is called for.

Please reassure me if you can.

It’s not so much that people are gullible – although sometimes they are—and certainly not that they are stupid, but rather that people judge others, particularly those whom they admire, by the same standards they apply to themselves. They think, well, certainly my neighbor would never mislead me about those limited partnerships he was selling. I would never do such a thing. I cannot even tell you how many times I had people who had lost their entire life’s savings sit in my office and tell me how they gave an obvious con artist one chance after another to make good on his word, because he was, say, a deacon in the church or a member of the Rotary Club.

While it’s hard for those on the receiving end of a fraud to finally figure out and accept that someone they trusted has betrayed them, it’s not so hard for juries to figure out what happened.

Your insight is a revelation to me. Thank you for your post and thank you for your articles over the last few years about the Bush administration.

There are so few people who think that the lawlessness of this administration must be addressed in a formal way or our republic will suffer permanent damage. What’s to stop the next war-mongoring, civil liberty ignoring, constitution shredding president from misbehaving if we don’t hold this one accountable?

As a contributor to The Nation please consider challenging the arguments of contributers like David Corn who specifically argue against impeachment.

I look forward to hearing from you in February. Thanks EdlV.

You said:

They think, well, certainly my neighbor would never mislead me about those limited partnerships he was selling. I would never do such a thing. I cannot even tell you how many times I had people who had lost their entire life’s savings sit in my office and tell me how they gave an obvious con artist one chance after another to make good on his word, because he was, say, a deacon in the church or a member of the Rotary Club.

I believe that as much as we don’t want to stereotype others that there are some “types” hidden in the hard-drives of our brains. We learn early in life that the good fairy is beautiful and the evil troll is very ugly. Then the movies teach us what the criminals look like and what the heroes look like. We also recognize the music that announces the bad guy has entered the scene. The white collar criminal wears his hair slicked back. There are so many kinds of roles and casting directors look for “type”. They wouldn’t be able to do this if we didn’t have some shared types that we recognize. We take these “types” and consciously or unconsciously transfer some parts of these stereotypes into our views of real life.

So we do want to believe the people in the real-life roles of good guy or gal (minister, nurse, teacher, community volunteer) are ethical and law-abiding and that it can take a lot to convince us otherwise. For many of us it fits our perception of the world.

Of course, we are all more complex than this — but the point I want to make is that—-

I hope the jury at the Libby trial harbors at least a little of the stereotype that says the prosecutor is always trustworthy and would not bring a case to trial without being very sure of his case. Fitzpatrick certainly looks the part of the hardworking hero.

I’m so looking forward to reading more about the trial here at FDL. I’m learning so much.

tiredfed at 73 — I hear you — but I knew the brief Libby portion was coming up and I wanted to watch Cheney’s facial expressions while he was talking about it. He did the indignant reaction thing while pushing back from Blitzer — interesting. Should be quite a day of fireworks if and when he gets called to the stand for cross-examination, I’d say.

As Dave Niehouse, Seattle Mariners play-by-play announcer, would say after a grand-slam home-run,

“Get out the mustard and the sandwich bread, Grandma, because its grand salami time!”

Fitz pitching questions to Cheney. I’d give up my first born — hell, I’d give up all my born to watch it. Blazing chin music.

I’d be around six Guiness nitrogen-pour pints deep in the end zone to receive the kick-off and scream,

“Get out your umbrellas, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, because it’s going to be raining cum in the courtroom.”

Sorry, guess I’ll never make it as a sportscaster. Ah cain’t stop mixin muh metafours, an I cain’t stop suckin suds.

Hey, anybody out there tried mixing absinthe and Guiness?

Come to think of it, Scooter’s defense seems to be a reasonable facsimile thereof, don’t it?

Della, give Paul a call and tell him to find out what’s being delivered to Wells’s office for lunch & dinner.

I never thought I’d live to see a president I trusted even less than Nixon.

Actually, so does Hamilton’s. Remember that the idiots steering our bus off the cliff are the very same affluent white male elites that Hamilton put so much faith in. And it’s the shopkeepers, etc, who tried in this election just past to apply some brakes, but the elites at the wheel are determined to ignore them. If anything, the fact that the American electorate finally caught on to what is happening despite the best efforts of the lapdog press suggests that Jefferson was on to something.