SidewaysT, Fitzgerald seems to have either no sense of irony, or a bubble of oblivion that surrounds him about his own institution. After he utilizes what sure looks like torture evidence in his Saleh prosecution, he then steps up to the plate in the Burge police torture case and solemnly opines on there is “no excuse” for torture. And after thousands of lawyers in the DOJ all sat silent when the DOJ’s torture policies were revealed – when they not only sat silent, but misled court after court and advocated for the continued torture detentions for the sole purpose of avoiding Executive branch embarassment, after the series of Ashcroft, Thompson (who directly signed off on the Arar shipment to torture paperwork), Gonzales, Yoo, Bybee, Comey, McNulty, Goldsmith, Bradbury, Philbin etc., he is “shocked” to find 15 corrupt police officers in IL.

On a different note, I sure wish the Impeachment Ornament had made it to the tree.

I know he could extend those rights to additional charges outside the perjury and obstruction charges which would have been covered in the pardon but could he exert those claims if he’s brought in to testify in a case brought against others if he’s not named as a defendant?

Just for the sake of argument, say early next year Fitzgerald brings evidence to a grand jury against Cheney etal. (without Libby being named) of their involvement in the Plame Outing. Libby’s testimony would be a critical piece of evidence. If Fitzgerald limits Libby’s testimony to his actions for which he was convicted on could he claim 5th Amendment protection based on the pardon given to him by the President?

On Wednesday, the New York Times had another psychotic episode.

What a perfect description of the NYT and the torture issue.

I mean … if Rove & Cheney aren’t going to get indicted, then pardoning them would be admitting and calling attention to their crimes, ne? But if he doesn’t, he leaves them naked after 1/20/09 because it may be a long while before somebody else disposed to pardoning them gets into the Oval Office.

What you guys think the chances are that Bush will issue preemptive pardons to these guys?

Yup, when I think back to those heady days of Iran/Contra, and how the RePod people were going to pay for that one…