LIBBY LOSES HIS APPEAL FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT-- PRISON LOOMS

Fred Thompson fails to put his fat finger on the scales of Justice

Judge Reggie Walton is a strong law and order judge who was appointed by Bush because Bush said he wanted him to be strict with serious criminals. Today Judge Walton stood up to the full might of the Republican Hate machine, to a coordinated pressure campaign orchestrated by powerful NeoCons, to the savage rantings and ravings of radio hate-mongers and Republicans presidential candidates looking to take cheap shots in order to appeal to a narrow partisan base-- particularly slick and deceitful lobbyist/actor Fred Thompson-- and even to right wing death threats against him and his family-- to refuse to grant Irving Libby (AKA- "Scooter") special treatment.

Pach over at FDL has been live-blogging the hearing all morning and the news just broke that Libby should expect to take up residence in a federal penitentiary with week. I have to admit that we would wind up with a situation like we had in L.A., where a bought-off Sheriff, Lee Baca, decided that wealthy, white, well-connected Republicans have different rules than the rest of us.

Libby's well-financed pack of attorneys went rushing to find an appeals court to overrule Judge Walton. "No date was set for Libby to report to prison but it's expected to be within six to eight weeks. That will be left up to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which will also select a facility. 'Unless the Court of Appeals overturns my ruling, he will have to report,' Walton said."

Walton never appeared to waiver from his opinion that a delay was unwarranted. After 12 prominent law professors filed documents supporting Libby's request, the judge waived it off as "not something I would expect from a first-year in law school."
He also said he received several "angry, harassing, mean-spirited" letters and phone calls following his sentencing but said they wouldn't factor into his decision.

Libby argued he had a good chance of persuading an appeals court that, when Attorney General John Ashcroft and other senior Justice Department officials recused themselves from the leak investigation, they gave Fitzgerald unconstitutional and unchecked authority.

Walton was skeptical, saying the alternative was to put someone with White House ties in charge of an investigation into the highest levels of the Bush administration.

"If that's going to be how we have to operate, our system is going to be in serious trouble with the average Joe on the street who thinks the system is unfair already," Walton said.