As a follow-up to Big Tent Democrat's earlier post on Cheney and Libby, this statement now appears on the White House website:

Scooter has dedicated much of his life to public service at the State Department, the Department of Defense and the White House. In each of these assignments he has served the nation tirelessly and with great distinction. I relied on him heavily in my capacity as Secretary of Defense and as Vice President. I have always considered him to be a man of the highest intellect, judgment and personal integrity-a man fully committed to protecting the vital security interests of the United States and its citizens.

Scooter is also a friend, and on a personal level Lynne and I remain deeply saddened by this tragedy and its effect on his wife, Harriet, and their young children. The defense has indicated it plans to appeal the conviction in the case. Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man.

A tragedy? I like the way he says "our system" rather than "the judicial system" or the "appellate courts." Can you spell p-a-r-d-o-n?

Cheney, the ultimate supporter of the unitary executive system.

The New York Times has an article on Steve Gilliard's passing.

May he rest in peace.

I'm watching the Republican debate:

• Least presidential: Sam Brownbeck (Geeky, awful tie that glitters, who dressed him?)

• Worst debating skills: John McCain. If he says "My friends" one more time I'm going to mute him.

• Most hyperbolic: Tom Tancredo for saying the nation will not survive if the immigration bill passes. It's worst feature to him is that we will become a bi-lingual nation.

• Worst analogy: Rudy on terrorism who conflates the Guyana wannabes into an attempt to destroy JFK last week, as if they were foiled just in the nick of time -- or that they are al Qaeda.

Rudy just got bleeped. Wolf says it was lightening. (Video here.)It's happening again. He's talking about abortion. He says he's personally opposed to it but his view of religion and the Constitution mean women shouldn't be penalized for their right to choose.

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Kudos to the town of New Haven Connecticut:

City officials approved a plan Monday to offer illegal immigrants identification cards that would let them open bank accounts and use other services that may be unavailable without driver's licenses or state-issued IDs.

Supporters say the program, approved by the Board of Aldermen and believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, will help safeguard the city's estimated 15,000 illegal immigrants. If they can open bank accounts, immigrants will be less likely to carry large amounts of cash, a practice that makes them easy targets for robbers.

The funding for the cards will come from a private foundation. It's not the first time New Haven has extended help to the undocumented:

New Haven, a city of about 125,000 and home to Yale University, already offers federal tax help to immigrants and prohibits police from asking about their immigration status.

Ok, we've linked to Firedoglake over and over today as they have the most thorough coverage of the Scooter Libby Sentencing (great job, Marcy, Jane and Christy.)

What are the law bloggers and commentators saying?

• Sentencing Law and Policy
• White Collar Crime Blog
• How Appealing (news coverage summary, not commentary)
• Andrew Cohen at WaPo's Bench Conference.
• Andrew Cohen again at CBS's Court Watch. Quotable:

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I don't think Bush will make any decision on a pardon for Scooter Libby before Judge Walton rules on the Appeal bond, and if denied, before the D.C. Court of Appeals reviews the bond decision. The White House said as much today.

The White House indicated today Bush will not act before Libby's appeal of his conviction is decided. I think that will take about a year.

Bush always says he doesn't want to interfere with the legal process. So that puts us at about June, 2008. Bush has until his last day in office in January, 2009 to issue the pardon.

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I've received this by e-mail from Joe and Valerie Wilson's representative and thought I'd share:

As Americans, both Valerie and I are grateful that justice has been served, reconfirming that our country remains a nation of laws.

We are also saddened for the pain that Mr. Libby has inflicted on his family, friends, and the nation. Mr. Libby benefited from the best this country had to offer: the finest schools, a lucrative career as a lawyer and many years of service in Republican administrations. That he would knowingly lie, perjure himself and obstruct a legitimate criminal investigation is incomprehensible.

It is our hope that he will now cooperate with Special Counsel Fitzgerald in his efforts to get to the truth. As Mr. Fitzgerald has said, a cloud remains over the Vice President.

Every official in this administration must be held accountable for their actions.

Update: Jason Leopold has this new on camera interview (pre-sentencing) with Joe Wilson.

Kevin Drum notes the falloff in support of the Democratic Congress in the wake of the Iraq Supplemental and joins the extreme prosyletizers:

This is water under the bridge at this point, but I think congressional Dems blew it by caving in to Bush on the war supplemental so quickly. . . If Democrats want to be taken seriously on national security, they need to be serious about national security. Sticking to their guns on Iraq is the place to start. Hesitation and indecision never won the public's support for anything.

Still, Kevin makes a curious and I think, inaccurate, statement:

In light of the sentence imposed by Judge Reggie Walton today on the former Cheney Chief of Staff Lewis I. "Scooter" Libby, what I wonder about is what is Vice President Cheney thinking today. Despite what some of us say, clearly Scooter Libby has done some good things in his life. He was not a person naturally inclined to perjury and obstruction of justice. But, to protect Dick Cheney, that is precisely what he did.

To me at least, the genesis of the outing of Valerie Plame was Cheney's reaction to the May 6, 2003 Nicholas Kristof column, where Joe Wilson was Kristof's principal source. For reasons still not clear, Cheney went ballistic about it and ordered a full court press to discredit the report. This included finding out "who sent Wilson" and then, trying to spread the word that Wilson was not credible (the logic is not clear why this would be discrediting) because "his wife sent him." Of course, to forward the charges of nepotism and boondoggles, it was necessary to reveal that Valerie Plame worked at the CIA.

Cheney was not deterred. Libby was ordered to do what he had to do.

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Update: They are now arguing the issue of bond pending appeal. I didn't think they would do that before the Notice of Appeal and a formal motion for bond pending appeal was filed. Marcy is covering the arguments. I still think Libby will get a voluntary surrender, meaning he doesn't go in today, regardless of whether an appeal bond is granted.

Update: Libby stays out of jail for now. The Probation Department has to recalculate the guidelines grouping the obstruction, perjury and false statement charge. The judge has stayed imposition of the sentence. No decision on bond pending appeal today or voluntary surrender today, but Libby goes home. Briefs will be filed on the appeal bond issue, it will be heard a week from Thursday at 1:30.

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Update: 30 months for Scooter Libby. $250,000. in fines.(CNN) Questions: Where did he ask to do his time? What's the voluntary surrender date?

Note: CNN is erroneously reporting Libby also got 2 years probation. It's supervised release, not probation. Supervised release replaced parole in the federal system in 1987. Probation and supervised release may be similar, but they are not the same.

Via Marcy at Firedoglake, Ted Wells has finished his argument for departures and a non-guideline sentence. Libby just spoke to the court:

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Here Here are the 373 pages of the sentencing letters submitted on behalf of Scooter Libby. I've broken them down into four parts.

• Letters, Part 1
• Letters, Part 2
• Letters, Part 3
• Letters, Part 4

Update: CNN: 30 months for Scooter Libby. Libby goes home. No ruling on appeal bond.

10:00 ET: The Judge is hearing legal arguments over the application of the federal sentencing guidelines to I. "Lewis" Scooter Libby.

Marcy is live-blogging at Firedoglake (Part 1 here, Part II here.) Judge Walton seems to agree with the Government that the cross-referencing guidelines are appropriate for at least the obstruction of justice count. All agree they don't apply to the false statement charge.

That's bad for Libby. His lawyer, Bill Jeffress, is now arguing that Valerie Plame was not covert, which is just wrong. She was covert.

10:11 am ET

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