Daily News:

In the waning days of the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney launched a last-ditch campaign to persuade his boss to pardon Lewis (Scooter) Libby - and was furious when President George W. Bush wouldn't budge.

Sources close to Cheney told the Daily News the former vice president repeatedly pressed Bush to pardon Libby, arguing his ex-chief of staff and longtime alter ego deserved a full exoneration - even though Bush had already kept Libby out of jail by commuting his 30-month prison sentence.

"He tried to make it happen right up until the very end," one Cheney associate said.

The craziest thing of all is that, despite a conviction by his peers on four felony counts, Dick Cheney still doesn't believe he did anything wrong. Stunning indeed. Perrspectives has more...

Update: And whenever you talk about these guys, another story about the DOJ firings comes out.

The Big Stone Wall: Nine Bush-Era Officials Refused To Cooperate With DOJ Probes

I was looking at that awful video of Sarah Palin babbling cluelessly while that turkey geeker lops off bloody heads in the background, and I realized... I've seen that guy before. So I looked through my photo archives and sure enough, he's ruined several other Republican photo-ops:

Continue reading »

The Havana Note: Joe Lieberman will seek a pardon for a convicted terrorist who led a bombing spree across Manhattan

DownWithTyranny! While we're on the subject of dangerous Republicrats...

Cogitamus: A Republican soldier caught in a lie? That's Unpossible!

Blue Girl, Red State: According to the Associated Press, this is what "winning the war" looks like: The enemy we have been fighting--and that has been killing Americans--has now been integrated into the government that we have been supporting with our blood and treasure.

HOLY CRAP: McCain's Catholic problem...Postcards From God...Jesus-crazed Republican legislator discovers wife-beating is unpopular...Iowa GOP (see:Evangelical) delegation blackballs Charles Grassley...The Great Desecration...Evangelical Christian tyranny is rife in the Military...Democratic National Convention to open with interfaith service led by Pentecostal minister...Methodist minister arrested in Karl Rove protest...Church v. State, Immigation Edition...How Archaeology killed Biblical History...White guys telling us what we need and deserve

George W. Bush has been exceedingly stingy when it comes to presidential pardons and commutations, issuing fewer than any modern president. But as Bush’s presidency winds down, there’s some talk about the president using his powers to help conceal some of the administration’s own transgressions.

As the administration wrestles with the cascade of petitions, some lawyers and law professors are raising a related question: Will Mr. Bush grant pre-emptive pardons to officials involved in controversial counterterrorism programs?

Such a pardon would reduce the risk that a future administration might undertake a criminal investigation of operatives or policy makers involved in programs that administration lawyers have said were legal but that critics say violated laws regarding torture and surveillance.

Some legal analysts said Mr. Bush might be reluctant to issue such pardons because they could be construed as an implicit admission of guilt. But several members of the conservative legal community in Washington said in interviews that they hoped Mr. Bush would issue such pardons — whether or not anyone made a specific request for one. They said people who carried out the president’s orders should not be exposed even to the risk of an investigation and expensive legal bills.

There are two angles to consider here: whether the White House would do this and whether the White House could do this.

On the prior, the Bush gang isn’t saying much. The NYT asked the White House about whether “pre-emptive pardons” — clearing people of legal responsibility before they even face charges — are on the table. The Times reported, “Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, would not say whether the administration was considering pre-emptive pardons, nor whether it would rule them out.”

On the latter, is this even a legal option? Does the president even have the authority to pardon someone who isn’t even facing criminal charges? Apparently, he can.

Jewcy: Americans have been deprived of access to a word that might allow them to reduce 1.2 billion people to one essential characteristic.

The National Protrusion: Bush asks history to preemptively pardon him.

WTF Is It Now?! OK, then how about some fraternity hazing-style waterboarding?

If I Ran the Zoo: And God won't take the time to sort your ashes from mine...

uggabugga: Or wrong...

Preemptive Karma: Christianists rabidly anti-Obama...and in a couple of related stories

Good morning. I'm Lance Mannion and I am a fugitive from a chain gang. I'm also a fugitive from a deadline, so l'd better get to this quick.

Guest host for the round-up: Me. My blog: here. Usual subjects: Whatever. Today's links: Coming right up.

Roxanne Cooper finds evidence that "the the anti-science/ pro-big business/ anti-Constitution/ othering coalition" otherwise known as the national Republican Party "is melting faster than Kilimanjaro".

Steven Hart has an attack of anti-nostalgia for the cigarette ads that used to interrupt the stories in the paperback books he loved back when he was young and impressionable.

Plenty of Democrats aren't happy at the prospect of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee---George Clooney, for one, according to the fab David E., who had cocktails with the man. Taylor Marsh, though, has her doubts about Barack Obama.

Pam Spaulding on Mike Huckabee's "rapist/murderer problem." Publius reminds us of how Huck's pardon of Dumond fits in with the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to destroy Bill Clinton---Dumond was innocent, don't you know? And Bill had him railroaded.

And with the holidays crashing down upon her, Quinn Cummings tries to find a place of sanity "somewhere between Ebenezer Scrooge and Thomas Kincaid."

Deadline met. Barely. Over and out.

Send tips to lance(atsign)lancemannion(dot)com.

In the words of Michael Buffer: Lllllllllllet's get ready to ROUND-UP!

Hello, everyone, Actor212 of Simply Left Behind...pardon me, the award-winning Simply Left Behind (and thank you for your votes) here, filling in for Mike on the Round Up. Lemme dig into this goodie bag and see what I've got for you on this Friday...oh damn! I stuck my hand in Rudy Giuliani! It will take *forever* to get the stench off!

- Rudy Giuliani takes on a whole new persona this week, as the indictment of Bernard Kerik, his buddy and hand-picked recommendation for Department of Homeland Security chief, is handed up. The Reaction examines his open flirtations with fascism, as if he was in a public men's room.

- It must be something in the water in Canada, because so does The Galloping Beaver.

- Or maybe it's something more sinister, since the Guys From Area 51 also make note of Rudy's rude digger*? The truth is out there!

- Speaking of public men's rooms, maybe we finally have an explanation for the recent rash of teh gay amongst Republicans nationwide….they're just courting votes!

- For my co-blogger, katrina: Peace Train points us to "Disaster preparedness...will we have to stop calling them "acts of God"?"

- Is Bush taking a page from the Chinese playbook? PERRspectives shows us how.

- David E gives us ""H.R. 3685, The Musical" (you might know that bill better as the Employment Nondiscrimination Act). I'm no theatre talent (*snort*), but it looks fabbbbbbbbulous! I bet there's even a role for Rudy to cross-dress in!

Please e-mail tips to actor212 care of yahoo spot com. I can't promise I'll post 'em all, but I'll read 'em all! Tomorrow's my last day guest blogging the Round Up...there's a major star of Blogtopia (© Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo) waiting in the wings.

* Five bonus blogging points if you identify in comments that reference.

From Group News Blog, (which incidentally is a terrific blog started by several of the late, great Steve Gilliard's regular commenters. The members of GNB kept Steve's blog going while he was hospitalized, and when he passed, they started their own, quote, "because if we didn't, Steve would totally kick our asses.")

We don't need any more heroes, no more white knights (pardon the phrase.) We need to change the party and we need to change the media. We need to run for party offices. Sunlight drives these people crazy. It galls them no end that they have to listen to all the Dirty F**king Hippies who post at Kos, and Atrios, and Firedoglake.

I really am much more concerned with the House seats and the Senate seats next year. The White House is just one job and a job that we seriously need to set limits on.

Open thread below, but also visit the GOP/FOX Debate Open Thread for that topic. Happy Sunday.

Duncan found this excellent piece (read it all) by David Broder from 1993 about Bush #41 and his pardon of the Iran-Contra's Caspar Weinberger:

We don't need more convictions and pardons of government officials. We need scorn and shame for those who violate their oaths of office. And that is a penalty that the American people -- and only the American people -- can invoke...read on

It's a scathing indictment of the media. If the Bill O'Reilly's would turn their attention to these crooked politicians and white collar criminals instead of crimes that are already abhorrent in our society we might reach Broder's conclusion. But then again, FOX NEWS would not have as many analysts working for them.

Campaign for America's Future:

Several politicians are booked to discuss the virtual pardon of Scooter Libby: Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah on CBS' Face The Nation; Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. on ABC's This Week and Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Chris Cannon, R-Utah on Fox News Sunday.

The critical question for all of them is:

Does the commutation of Scooter Libby's jail sentence amount to obstruction of justice on the part of President Bush?

Several have directly accused Bush of obstruction of justice, including Ambassador Joe Wilson, blogger-journalists Marcy Wheeler and Josh Marshall, and our own Rick Perlstein. Also, Washingtonpost.com's Dan Froomkin noted that our Founders did not believe the pardon power included the power for the president to "stop inquiry and prevent detection" of crimes associated with himself.

More questions on the CfAF site as well as links to give feedback to the Sunday bobblehead shows. Bill Scher will be on Sam Seder's AAR show to discuss.  You can stream Sam's show here.