Jeff Lomonaco

BUSH’S TRIAL The trouble with the progressive case for pardoning Libby that Ezra has endorsed is twofold. First, all Bush has to do is commute Libby’s prison sentence, which, as I understand it, would allow Libby’s appeals to go forward, providing Bush with an ongoing excuse to not address the matter publicly while Libby pursues […]

FIRING FITZGERALD Under questioning by Senator Dick Durbin, Kyle Sampson just acknowledged that he brought up the possibility of adding Patrick Fitzgerald to the list of United States Attorneys to be fired with Harriet Miers and someone else. I missed the exact timing of the event (though it was while the CIA leak investigation was […]

MEMO TO LEGISLATORS: FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS! I’ve been reading the transcripts of the Libby trial, and one of the things that really makes an impression is how skilled the distinguished lawyers on both sides are at asking follow-up questions, perhaps especially when a witness seeks to dodge a question with an answer about not recalling […]

WHO SAYS CHENEY IS HEARTLESS? Via Tom Maguire, the New York Post‘s Page Six hears THAT Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to Hudson Institute members Monday at the Union League Club. Asked about a possible pardon for Scooter Libby, he smiled and said, “You can imagine how I feel about that.” Libby himself was seated […]

PLAME’S TESTIMONY. Valerie Plame Wilson made an impressive appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this morning. The Democrats were clearly trying to put to rest the notion that Plame was not under cover at the CIA when numerous administration officials leaked her identity to reporters in summer 2003. We learned both from […]

SURVEY SAYS: NO PARDON! From this CNN poll, it would appear that (pace Andrea Mitchell) every person who believes Scooter Libby should be granted a pardon has written an editorial on the matter. Seriously, it may be sad, but it’s this sort of poll result — along with the finding that 52 percent of those […]

SCOTTIE’S REVENGE. One of the interesting elements of the fallout from the Libby verdict has been the reemergence of former White House spokesperson Scott McClellan to quietly exact vengeance on Libby and Cheney for causing McClellan to make infamously false public statements clearing Libby in fall 2003 — falsehoods that haunted his entire tenure as […]

JUROR, IMPRESSIONIST. It’s worth checking out this impressionistic account by Scooter Libby juror Denis Collins. Sure, Collins is an author and former journalist looking for face time in the media. But he’s been providing some very compelling information about the jury’s deliberations. (Here’s his appearance on Larry King Live yesterday. Also don’t miss poor Scott […]

THE RIGHT RESPONSE. Responses from the right to the Libby verdict are starting to come in, though they have not yet gelled, so they’re sort of interesting. The general tenor, not surprisingly, is one of despairing disappointment. There seems to be an impulse to blame the jurors, but I don’t think that’s going to fly, […]

WHITHER CHENEY? In his comments outside the courthouse, Patrick Fitzgerald announced that he does not anticipate bringing any more charges and, barring any new information, the investigation is now inactive. I don’t think anyone thinks Libby is going to turn on Cheney, so that means indeed that whatever consequences there are for Cheney will be […]