James Fallows writes:

Rudy Giuliani’s answer to the first substantive question of the debate. Knowing everything we know now, good idea or bad idea to have invaded Iraq?

Absolutely the right thing to do. It’s unthinkable that you would leave Saddam Hussein in charge of Iraq and be able to fight the war on terror. And the problem is that we see Iraq in a vacuum. Iraq should not be seen in a vacuum. Iraq is part of the overall terrorist war against the United States.

Huh???? . . . What you can’t understand, or at least what I have a hard time with, is why somebody who is not lumbered with responsibility for the Iraq war — didn’t help plan or execute it, didn’t even have to vote for it in Congress — would voluntarily link himself to the war in this way.

For the same reason he was so stridently pro-Scooter Libby pardon - his history of supporting choice, immigration, gun control, gay rights, etc. Rudy can not let the message be about that. It must be about fear, hysteria and lies about Iraq and the War on Terror. For the same reason Rudy flat out lies about Iran:

In Sunday night's Democratic debate, Senator Hillary Clinton said:

“I believe we are safer than we were,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We are not yet safe enough, and I have proposed over the last year a number of policies that I think we should be following.”

I believe Senator Clinton misspoke. I think what she meant to say is that the United States has done much more since 9/11 to provide against terrorist attacks on our transportation systems and other domesic targets, but that does not translate into being "safer." Indeed, we could be doing everything possible and still be less safe. But, in fact, we are not doing everything possible. Rather, as many have argued, the MAIN thing we are doing, the Iraq Debacle, has made us less safe.

I try to do an open thread on Tuesdays, but I ended up being online all day and night because of Scooter Libby's sentencing. So, I'm going to be at work today, and as a heads up, I'll be on the road starting Thursday until next week. We'll try to keep the site going, but here's a place for you to discuss what's of import to you, regardless of whether me, Big Tent, TChris or LNILR have mentioned it.

I won't have the transcript of Tuesday's sentencing hearing in the Scooter Libby trial until today. But, Neil Lewis of the New York Times, reports:

The judge said there was no issue that Mr. Libby’s lawyers could appeal that seemed to present a reasonable chance of succeeding. But he relented somewhat and said they could file briefs next week detailing their arguments that there were two reasonable grounds for appeal: that Mr. Fitzgerald’s appointment as a special counsel was improper and that Judge Walton had erred in prohibiting the defense team from presenting experts on the fallibility of human memory.

I have thought all along that Judge Walton's refusal to allow a memory expert to testify at trial was a critical error. But Judge Walton ruled Libby's case is distinguishable from a case of faulty eyewitness memory, which is notoriously unreliable and therefore might require expert testimony.

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The Republican candidates for President were asked at the New Hampshire debate tonight whether Scooter Libby should be pardoned. They were told to give a yes or no answer. From the transcript:

I just want to do a quick yes or no, and I’m going to go down the rest of the group and let everybody just tell me yes or no, would you pardon Scooter Libby?

REP. PAUL: No.

MR. GILMORE: No. I’m steeped in the law. I wouldn’t do that.

REP. HUNTER: No, not without reading the transcript.

MR. HUCKABEE: Not without reading the transcript.

SEN. MCCAIN: He’s going through an appeal process. We’ve got to see what happens here.

MR. GIULIANI: I think the sentence was way out of line. I mean, the sentence was grossly excessive in a situation in which at the beginning, the prosecutor knew who the leak was —

MR. BLITZER: So yes or no, would you pardon him?

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Here's the transcript of the New Hampshire Republican debate tonight. Among the lowlights:

Rudy playing the terror card:

First, his self-introduction:

I’m Rudy Giuliani. I agree with the motto of your state, “Live free or die.” And I think it would be a pretty good one for our time.

Now, Saddam and the terror war:

It’s unthinkable that you would leave Saddam Hussein in charge of Iraq and be able to fight the war on terror. And the problem is that we see Iraq in a vacuum. Iraq should not be seen in a vacuum. Iraq is part of the overall terrorist war against the United States.

Then, he plays up the Guyana wannabes, in a question on Iran:

And during the debate the other night, the Democrats seemed to be back in the 1990s. They don’t seem to have gotten beyond the Cold War. Iran is a threat, a nuclear threat, not just because they can deliver a nuclear warhead with missiles. They’re a nuclear threat because they are the biggest state sponsor of terrorism and they can hand nuclear materials to terrorists. And we saw just last week in New York an attempt by Islamic terrorists to attack JFK Airport; three weeks ago, an attempt to attack Fort Dix.

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It takes a lot of chutzpah to publish a book about Hillary Clinton by Jeff Gerth. But the publisher Little, Brown chose to do so anyway. Simply put, given his atrocious record as a reporter, particularly on Whitewater, leaves Gerth with no credibiity whatsoever as a reporter, much less, as a reporter on the Clintons.

Here's the thing - Gerth and Don Van Natta, Jr., Gerth's co-author, may have the goods on Senator Clinton but whatever they write simply will not be believed. That is what associating with Jeff Gerth will do to most any journalistic project.

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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