I have had doubts for a long time about the fairness and nonpartisanship of the Fourth Estate. Frankly journalists today give me pause !

I doubt whether Libby has any choice about going to jail, not so much to protect Cheney as because he's a perjuring dolt. If Cheney had a spine he would have resigned long ago; but then if Cheney had a spine the US wouldn't be bogged down in a pile of bodies in Iraq, and doubtless some of Shrub's other idiocies could have been avoided. Still, Rumsfeld, Bolton, Libby: the tumbrils trundle on and the Augean Stables continue to get hosed.

So yeah, I'm feeling peachy and totally unapologetic for it. Lie under oath: do the time, whoever you are. (Did Libby think he was swearing on a copy of "My Pet Goat"?) He'll wind up in a few years' time making a mint on the after-dinner circuit like the Watergate "plumbers" he so resembles. Maybe they're heroes at KT too.

So Rob, since you are an expert on US Law, tell us why you think Libby is going to jail, because I don't think he is. The rest of your peroration is your typical tripe: a series of sonorous buzz-words strung together with no content.

I don't know whether he's going to jail or not: that's up to the legal system (and as no expert, or claimed expert, on US law, I'm not sure whether at this level it's the judge or the jury which determines the sentence - in the UK it owuld be the judge). I don't expect Libby has any say in the matter though, which is what I said. Maybe he'll get off, which he doesn't deserve,. the reason I doubt that, as I've said in another comment, is that judges everywhere tend to come down hard on people who don't take the legal system seriously, whether by committing contempts of court or perjury. I don't suppose he'll get five years, but I think he'll go to jail. In any case, he's guilty. A liar. Not to be trusted. A crook. Cheney's blue-eyed boy. Enough content for you?

First the trial is going to appeal, and as the judge made some serious errors, there will be, I believe, at least some reversals.

And then if Bush doesn't pardon him, he won't be worthy of his family name. It will be to his great dishonor.

Bush did not convene a special prosecutor for a non-case, led by a prosecutor with a personal grudge against the defendent, since the defendent had once bested him on a serious legal matter, after Fitz already knew who the leaker was.

Not many people still think Bush IS worthy of the family name. Anyway, time will tell.