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WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney chose someone in his own likeness to be his new chief of staff. Like Cheney, David Addington shuns the limelight. And like Cheney, Addington already has made a large imprint on the Bush White House. At Cheney's side since the 1980s, Addington has been a behind-the-scenes player in one after another of the hot-button controversies the Bush administration has faced: _The CIA leak probe. _The fight to disclose which corporations advised the White House on energy policy. _The dispute over the treatment of suspected terrorists. _The White House disagreements with the Sept. 11 commission...

Former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told the FBI that it was "possible" that Vice President Cheney instructed him to disseminate information about CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press, according to a redacted FBI report recently examined by Congressional investigators. In part as a result of that revelation, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today reiterated its request for more Plame investigation documents -- including reports on the interviews investigators conducted with Cheney and President Bush. In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Committee Chairman Henry Waxman also writes that "[n]ew revelations by...

While Gov. Rick Perry was in Johnson Coliseum addressing SFA graduates, on the other side of campus a group of citizens were not so happy about his appearance in Nacogdoches. In the free-speech area of campus, near North Street and Vista Drive, many farmers, property owners and concerned citizens gathered for a Citizens Against the Trans-Texas Corridor Rally. Holding protest signs and using a tractor as a symbol of the farming community, those who gathered wanted to make their cause heard by the governor, as well as the community. Many vehicles traveling on North Street honked in support of the...

The Prime Minister of Niger reported to the U.S. State Department in early 2002 that Iraq tried to buy uranium "yellow cake" (ore) -- a June 2003 Memo reveals. A declassified court exhibit introduced in the 2007 trial of Scooter Libbey proved that Saddam Hussein tried to get uranium ore from Niger -- covertly and under the table. This is clear evidence that Saddam Hussein was actively developing nuclear weapons. Iraq already had stockpiles of uranium "yellow cake" that it was not using -- but that uranium was being watched by UN inspectors. Iraq could have no reason for wanting...

Former Cheney Aide Libby Disbarred Bush Commuted Libby's Prison Sentence Last Year POSTED: 10:41 am EDT March 20, 2008 UPDATED: 10:55 am EDT March 20, 2008 A Washington, D.C., radio station reports that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has been disbarred. A three-judge panel on the D.C. Court of Appeals stripped Libby of his ability to practice law after he was found guilty last year of obstructing the investigation in the CIA leak investigation, WTOP radio reported.

There's been a lot of talk about the new Trans-Texas Corridor — the next-generation "super-highway" — and opinions are varying. Now the debate is coming to Lufkin's doorstep. On Monday, the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and TURF will hold a workshop at Lufkin's Pitser Garrison Civic Center on how to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor 69. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A portion of Texas citizens have voiced their opposition to the TTC-69 in public meetings held by the Texas Department of Transportation, but believing they are not being heard, four cities and their...

NACOGDOCHES — The rows of extra chairs brought into the The Fredonia's biggest meeting room Thursday night were not enough to accommodate more than 750 people who attended an open house and public hearing on the proposed TTC-69 highway. Texas Department of Transportation officials heard hours of public testimony that continued late into the night overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of new roadways through East Texas. Applause throughout the hours-long meeting never swelled as loudly as it did when the first speaker of the night, state Rep. Wayne Christian, told TxDOT representatives emphatically that "our answer is 'no' on the...

ROBSTOWN, Tex. — Leon Little’s farm here near Corpus Christi would not be seized for Texas’s proposed $184-billion-plus superhighway project for 5 or 10 years, if ever. But Mr. Little was alarmed enough to show up Wednesday night with hundreds of his South Texas coastal neighbors to do what the Texas Department of Transportation has been urging: “Go ahead, don’t hold back.� Don’t worry. Texans have gotten the message, swamping hearings and town meetings across the state to grill and often excoriate agency officials about a colossal traffic makeover known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, a public-private partnership unrivaled in the...

Grimes County commissioners and County Judge Betty Shiflett made sure they attended a TTC/I-69 meeting at the Walker County Fairgrounds last week, as residents previously demanded they take a stronger stance against the proposed route through Grimes County. Shiflett received a roaring applause from audience members with her speech that ended with the question, “What part of “no� do you not understand?� Shiflett added that Grimes County was not given an option for having a town meeting, just the environmental meeting. “Representative Lois Kolkhorst stole the show as she announced loud and clear that she was against TTC I-69,� said...

Local residents who want to add their two cents about the proposed Interstate 69 construction won't have to fill their tanks to do it. TxDOT is coming to Longview. The Texas Department of Transportation is holding 46 public hearings this month in East and South Texas along the planned corridor, including Tuesday's meeting in Longview. The hearings will give Texans a chance to comment and ask questions about the proposed Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor, a collection of passenger and freight roadways, utility and rail lines from Texarkana to the Rio Grande Valley. A draft environmental impact statement released in November suggests...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- President Bush granted pardons Tuesday to carjackers, drug dealers, a moonshiner and an election-laws violator but not to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his vice president's former top aide who was convicted in the case of the leaked identity of a CIA operative. In all, Bush pardoned 29 convicts and reduced the prison sentence of one more in the end-of-the-year presidential tradition. Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Bush has granted 142 pardons and commuted five sentences since taking office in 2001 — lagging far behind the pace set by most modern presidents. The list was issued with...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is no longer appealing his conviction in the CIA leak case, a tacit recognition that continuing his legal fight might only make things worse. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction but President Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence in July. As a convicted felon, Libby will lose his law license and, in some states, cannot vote. He might have had a chance to avoid those consequences had he won on appeal, but at a new trial his commutation...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is dropping his appeal in the CIA leak case, his attorney said Monday. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction for lying about his conversations with reporters about outed CIA operative Valerie Plame. "We remain firmly convinced of Mr. Libby's innocence," attorney Theodore Wells said. "However, the realities were, that after five years of government service by Mr. Libby and several years of defending against this case, the burden on Mr. Libby and his young family of continuing to...

NBC News White House correspondent David Gregory, accused of being a partisan, made a false statement about the "Scooter" Libby case. In reporting former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s charge that the Bush administration fed false information, Gregory claimed Libby "went to jail for obstructing the leak investigation." Although Libby was sentenced to 30 months of prison, Libby never actually went to jail as Gregory claims. President Bush commuted Libby’s sentence, eliminating the prison term yet still upholding a hefty fine and probation. "Today," however, did not spend a lot of time on the McClellan charge, just a brief...

Six Reasons the Plame Episode is a Farce 2007-02-03 -- In a syndicated newspaper column by Robert Novak on July 14, 2003, Valerie Plame (aka Valerie E. Wilson) was identified as a CIA "operative on weapons of mass destruction." Plame was married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had worked briefly for the CIA and had written a scathing editorial a week earlier in the New York Times accusing the Bush administration of "twisting," "manipulating," and "exaggerating" intelligence about Iraqi weapons programs "to justify an invasion." Bush's adversaries quickly concluded that he or someone close to him had illegally...

Columnist Robert Novak said Saturday Ambassador Joe Wilson did not forcefully object to the naming of his CIA operative wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, when Novak spoke to him prior to the publication of a column that sparked a federal investigation and sent White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby to jail. “He was not terribly exercised about it,” Novak said. Instead, Wilson focused on not being portrayed as simply an opponent of the Iraq war. Wilson also stressed that his wife went by his last name, Wilson, rather than Plame, Novak said. Novak forcefully defended his handling of the column...

Columnist Robert Novak said Saturday Ambassador Joe Wilson did not forcefully object to the naming of his CIA operative wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, when Novak spoke to him prior to the publication of a column that sparked a federal investigation and sent White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby to jail. “He was not terribly exercised about it,” Novak said. Instead, Wilson focused on not being portrayed as simply an opponent of the Iraq war. Wilson also stressed that his wife went by his last name, Wilson, rather than Plame, Novak said. Novak forcefully defended his handling of the column...

The hypocritical braying that has greeted George W. Bush's commutation of White House aide "Scooter" Libby's (pictured) prison sentence continues. "The president's critics are contrasting his leniency for Libby with his overall advocacy of stiff sentences," writes the San Francisco Chronicle this week. I think the scandal isn't the President's lenience for Libby, but that Libby was prosecuted in the first place. Here are the facts. A former ambassador named Joseph Wilson wrote an article in 2003, suggesting that the President had played fast and loose with intelligence to justify his invasion of Iraq. The piece appeared in The New...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON - A brawl over presidential pardons punctured the normally courtly ambiance of the Senate on Thursday night, but Republicans and Democrats agreed to bury the hatchet and erase the evidence before the sun rose Friday. In the heat of a partisan spat, Democrats forced a vote on a nonbinding measure to instruct President Bush not to pardon former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. But there's no record of the 47-49 vote in the daily record of congressional proceedings — or anywhere else. That's because senators agreed less than an hour later to undo their vote...

U. S. District Court Judge John D. Bates has dismissed the lawsuit that Valerie Plame Wilson filed against Vice President Dick Cheney and other members of the Bush administration, saying there was no legal basis for the suit. The judge commented that the act of rebutting public criticism—such as that levied by Joseph Wilson against the administration—by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of employment for members of the Executive branch.

Dishwasher and part-time landscaper Juan Sanchez called a press conference to officially confirm two years ago, he entered the US illegally.

The further redacted affidavits filed in the Miller case are now available online. Two interesting facts have struck Just One Minute commenters as we skim through this newly available material. First, Fitzgerald granted Ari Fleischer immunity without requiring him to provide waivers, so that Fitzgerald could not confirm Ari's story with reporters. This seems remarkable, and when you add to it that Fitzgerald claimed in court that he granted immunity to Fleischer without having any idea what he'd testify to, it is astonishing. It may explain why he believed for so long that Libby had been the source to Walter...

Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson signed on with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign yesterday, saying "it's entirely possible" his ex-spy wife will hit the trail with her, too. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a covert CIA operations officer by President Bush's advisers in 2003 as they sought to discredit her Iraq war critic husband. She's writing a memoir due in the fall. "I would expect her to be engaged [politically] probably after the book tour," Wilson told the Daily News after Clinton announced his endorsement. Wilson said his wife shunned politics during her two decades as a covert spy. But...

Ten days after the President commuted the prison term of I. Lewis Libby, Judge Walton upheld the amended sentence in a new memorandum opinion, and displayed his pique at the executive interference and disputed the criticism of his sentencing process. But a review of the relevant facts suggests the President has the better argument.

Conrad Black found guilty on 3 charges CBC News Last Updated: Friday, July 13, 2007 | 11:35 AM ET Businessman Conrad Black has been found guilty on two mail fraud charges and one obstruction of justice charge, a Chicago courtroom was told Friday morning. On the other changes, Black was found not guilty. The jury's verdict came after 12 days of deliberation. There is no word of verdicts in the cases of three Hollinger executives who were being tried alongside the Canadian media baron. More to come.

Do you believe Democrats will be swept into control of the White House, the House, and the Senate next year on a wave of public outrage over the CIA leak affair? Neither do I. Democrats might indeed win it all in 2008, but Plamegate won’t be the reason. Nevertheless, some are still trying to wring the last drops of political benefit from the CIA leak saga, still acting as if the public is hungry for one more retelling of the story. The latest retelling came Wednesday, when House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) held a hearing entitled “The...

In commuting the defendant's thirty-month term of incarceration, the President stated that the sentence imposed by this Court was "excessive" and that two years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine alone are "harsh punishment" for an individual convicted on multiple counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal investigators. July 2, 2006 Statement by the President on Executive Clemency for Lewis Libby at 1. Although it certainly is the Presidents prerogative to justify the exercise of his constitutional commutation power in the manner he chooses (or even to decline to provide a reason for his...

President George W. Bush has publicly acknowledged for the first time that someone in his administration likely leaked the identity of a CIA operative, but he said it's time to "move on." ...Libby, who was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was the highest White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/politics/13670689/detail.html ******** For some reason the name William Jefferson Clinton rings a bell as another "white house offical" who was impeached for obstruction of justice? ...seems the MSM has blurred my memory.

Did President Bush pull a classic Machiavellian move to outmaneuver Team Clinton over last week's Fourth of July holiday? In my opinion, the timing of President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison term was no accident. The President was well aware that former President Clinton would be joining his wife on the fourth for her visit to Iowa in an attempt to raise her sagging poll numbers there. The President is also very aware of the former President’s own record on pardons. President Bush also correctly judged that Team Clinton would resort to defending their own pardon record as soon...

When he used his clemency power to keep I. Lewis Libby out of prison, President Bush said a sentence of two and a half years was excessive punishment for lying to federal investigators about conversations with reporters. I agree. But the president's sudden desire to correct unjust sentences is hard to credit, given how little interest he has shown in this area until now. In six and a half years, Bush has granted 113 pardons, typically used to clear the records of reformed criminals after they've completed their sentences. Counting Libby's, he has issued only four commutations, which allow people...

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - A state lawmaker said Saturday he was being facetious when he called on President Bush to commute the prison sentence of a former Ohio congressman convicted of bribery and racketeering. State Rep. Robert Hagan of Youngstown said he was attempting to vent outrage over Bush's decision to spare former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison sentence by writing the president Friday and asking him to show mercy on James Traficant. --- Hagan said his letter was misinterpreted by some hardcore Traficant supporters, including local politicians who think Traficant has paid his...

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions," the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a scholarly New York Democrat, used to say, "but not their own facts." Sorry, "Pat." But, my e-mail box runneth over with misconceptions from readers who feel entitled to their own facts about President Bush's commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's jail sentence. The former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney had been sentenced to 30 months in jail and a $250,000 fine before President Bush commuted the prison term, calling it "excessive." However, Bush let the fine stand, along with probation.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's commutation of a prison term for a former aide to Vice President Cheney did not play well with the public or even Republicans, a survey found. In a USA Today-Gallup poll released on Tuesday, 66 percent said Bush should not have intervened in the case of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, whose sentence for obstructing justice in the CIA leak case included a 2 1/2-year prison term. Thirteen percent said the president's move was correct, and 6 percent said Bush should have given Libby a full pardon. Bush didn't even receive much of a boost in support...

The New York Times waited just hours after President Bush commuted the sentence of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., before issuing an editorial condemning the president's decision. -SNIP-The Times editorial made much of the supposed hypocrisy of the tough-on-crime right in supporting the decision to commute the sentence. It ran out its editorial under the headline "soft on crime," though it has been soft on crime for years, save for when Republicans are in the dock. Its support for throwing a public official in jail for 30 months for the crime of trying to...

Let me now -- and not for the first time -- rush in where angels fear to tread. I support President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence. I have never met Mr. Libby. I have not been asked by any of his friends or family to assist him. So why am I taking this step, which is sure to be criticized by many of my friends and supporters? It is because I believe in fairness. To remain silent because speaking out would not be popular is to invite punishment in the world to come. What are the facts in...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) on Monday urged President Bush to waive executive privilege and allow White House aides to discuss the decision behind Scooter Libby’s commutation. In light of Libby’s prison sentence being commuted, Conyers is holding a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the use of presidential clemency power. Calling the decision “highly controversial” in a letter to Bush, the Michigan Democrat references “commentators” who are suggesting that Libby’s commutation removes any incentive for him to provide more information on the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name to the press. Conyers cites past examples of...

One of the weaknesses of Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign is that imagining her in the Oval Office brings to mind the scandals that marked her husband's time as president. Especially now, when she is trotting old Bubba out to rev up the faithful, the sordid past undermines her and boosts Barack Obama's promise for a different kind of politics. The list of investigations, allegations and a few convictions during the Clinton administration was so long and tangled that the cases now morph into a fog. Distinctions among Travelgate and Whitewater and FileGate and GiftGate and the $100,000 commodities windfall get...

With supporters running away from him -- on his immigration policy, on Iraq -- with his popularity plummeting, as Republican politicians seek safe harbor, with critics sniping, there are qualities to admire about President Bush. Almost alone, stubbornly, he stands with our allies, including Israel, refusing to back down from Islamic terrorists working American public opinion in Iraq. He continues to pressure Iran on its pursuit of an Islamic theocratic nuclear nightmare in the Middle East. He stands for life, opposed to the popular drumbeat from those who would use some human lives to benefit other, more powerful lives through...

Senators want Libby prosecutor to testify 14 minutes ago The Senate Judiciary Committee may seek testimony from controversial prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about the obstruction of justice case against vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, two senators said on Sunday. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican member of the committee, said he wanted to hear from Fitzgerald because, "I still haven't figured out what that case is all about." Libby, the one-time top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty in March of obstructing an investigation into who blew the cover of a CIA analyst whose husband...

<p>I have been a lurker here for quite sometime. I am also a (struggling) cartoonist and thought I would share my latest offering with you.</p>

Scooter Libby Roundup FACE THE FACTS: The reason Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence was SO LIBBY WOULDN'T TALK. Bush “guaranteed not only that Libby wouldn’t talk, but retaining Libby’s right to invoke the Fifth. This amounts to nothing less than obstruction of justice.” Now, the Bush administration is legally protected from having to answer questions. If Libby had been in prison, anyone could have gotten to him. Now, no one can get Libby to say a word about the real culprits, which are obviously Rove and Cheney/Bush. **First of all, it's vitally important to understand what Valerie Plame was actually...

In drama – and in real life as well - players and events thrown together in improbable circumstances cause surprising or unanticipated outcomes ("situational irony"). When the drama is played out in Washington, D.C., there is always a Greek chorus of hypocrites who loudly criticize the players for infractions of which they, too, are guilty.With this in mind, isn’t it ironic that:† During the course ofan investigation to determine who identified Valerie Plame as a CIA employee, Richard Armitage - who admitted being the leaker - has not been indicted or prosecuted?† Rather than shutting down the investigation after the...

I understand the angst of certain rule of law proponents upset by President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's conviction. But most of the people outraged by it have no credibility, since they were utterly indifferent to the Clintons' habitual mockery of the rule of law and prolific and shady abuse of the pardon power during their co-presidency. As the president clearly has the constitutional authority to pardon or commute sentences for almost any reason, the issue isn't one of authority, but propriety. As a rule of law conservative I don't take lightly such executive interventions in the judicial process, believing...

I guess someone thinks he still going to show up.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House spokesman Tony Snow fired back at former President Bill Clinton after Clinton charged that the Bush administration believes the law is a "minor obstacle" in the "Scooter" Libby case. "I don't know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it," Snow told reporters in an off-camera briefing Wednesday. Webster's New World dictionary defines chutzpah as "shameless audacity; imprudence; brass."

Des Moines, Iowa - Former President Bill Clinton says President Bush's decision to spare ex-White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from prison differed from his own administration's pardon controversy. "You've got to understand, this is consistent with their philosophy," Clinton said during an interview on Des Moines news-talk station WHO. Bush administration officials, he said, "believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle." "It's wrong to out that C.I.A. agent and wrong to try to cover it up," Mr. Clinton added. "And no one was ever fired...

Mother whose son is serving time sees inequality in priest's sentencing. Patricia Jones can't believe it. Although the Rev. Daniel McCormack pleaded guilty to molesting five Catholic school boys, a judge handed down a 5-year sentence -- essentially one year for every boy McCormack confessed to molesting. Her own son got six years when he pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl who allegedly was on the street selling sexual favors at 4 in the morning. "I am very bitter and very angry," Jones told me during a telephone interview on Tuesday. Five years ago, her son...

Justice: Those who criticize President Bush's decision to commute Scooter Libby's 30-month prison sentence should remember: The punishment should fit the crime. And in this case, there wasn't one. Yet, that hasn't stopped Bush's foes from going into high dudgeon about Bush letting Libby avoid jail. The New York Times editorialized that Bush, rather than showing basic decency, "sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell." Presidential candidate and media darling Barack Obama opined this demonstrated how the Bush White House has "consistently placed itself and its ideology above...

What does it take to get President Bush to pardon Scooter Libby? Michael Ramirez has the answer here.