No Probation For Scooter Libby?

I just heard it on CNN going on in the other room. There is a glitch, a procedural problem that may prevent Scooter Libby from serving any time under supervised probation, and it’s all because Bush commuted Libby’s sentence before he spent a single day serving it.

According to US District judge Reggie Walton, there is a problem if a convicted felon has his sentence commuted before setting foot in prison.

From MSNBC:

“The law, Walton said in court documents, ‘does not appear to contemplate a situation in which a defendant may be placed under supervised release without first completing a term of incarceration.’”

This problem arises from Bush’s reluctance to talk to anyone about this decision before making it public. Had he run the idea past his Attorney General . . . no scratch that . . . past some legal minds in the Department of Justice, they would have, in all probability, pointed out this technicality in the law. Either that, and he did consult the Justice Department, they pointed out the problem, and he went ahead anyway.

Either way, Bush looks really bad. An incompetent who says that a fine and probation was enough punishment, and then blows it on the probation, or a devious and dishonest president who was given a way to get his friend off the hook almost entirely.

Walton is giving the special prosecutor and Libby’s lawyers until Monday to come up with arguments on this.

All I can say is How Much Is ENOUGH!