Does a Nickname Like "Scooter" Work for or Against You in the Joint?

So Scooter got his sentence today, and it includes jail time, as a serious offense like his deserves. I've long been tired of those who argue that there never were any charges for the crimes he's accused of obstructing. That would be because the obstruction worked. There was a cover up, and (so far at least) it's been successful. We've never been able to get to the bottom of what happened in the outing of Valerie Plame because Scooter was in the way. Maybe there was no wrongdoing--we can't know. But it always seems like a good rule of thumb that if somebody's trying to hide something, they're pretty sure it's worthy of being hidden. Was it a crime? Maybe, maybe not, but somebody seems to believe that it's worth 2 1/2 years of Scooter's life to make sure we never find out one way or the other.

Or maybe they don't. Although the White House is keeping a low profile for the moment, is there anyone who thinks Scooter isn't going to be pardoned? The only surprise to me so far is that there seems to be some hesitation on the part of the Prez. The Washington Post reports that it's the topic that dare not be broached in Bush's presence. You've got to wonder who he's worried about offending. It can't be people like me, who've never been on his side to begin with. I'm already alienated--it's only a matter of degree if I'm alienated further. He's got to be concerned about the people who are nominally on his side. Is he concerned about Congress? Could a pardon push some of the middle-of-the-road Republicans who might start voting against his Iraq policy?

It's an odd dynamic. At the Republican debate tonight, front-running candidates Guiliani and Romney didn't hesitate to say that they'd pardon Libby, and McCain didn't say he wouldn't. There's no question where that great unannounced candidate we discussed last night stands. The National Review has been on the record in favor of a pardon for three months now. But Bush seems to be concerned enough that he'd have a problem that he's holding off for now. And that's something, because you've got to know that Cheney's been leaning on him hard.

An intriguing footnote to all this is the mass of letters that was sent to Judge Reggie B. Walton in support of and in opposition to Scooter. Take a look at The Smoking Gun for a selection of the letters (starting with Donald Rumsfeld) or get them all in one fell swoop (be careful, though; that file's a 373-page PDF). My favorite is the one from Mary Matalin describing the lengths Scooter was willing to go to in order to make sure the Cheney grandchildren had a happy Halloween one year they were all stuck at the "undisclosed location" (her quote marks, not mine). Surely some enterprising soul is going to catalogue these so we can see the ones that interest us without being stuck scrolling through the whole mass of them one by one.