Ain't democracy grand?

The municipal election was this weekend and C. and I both voted at the high school right next door. Although we discussed the candidates beforehand, we didn't go in with any particular strategy so I was a little surpised to discover that we'd both voted exactly the same way: Tremblay for city mayor, Biddle for borough mayor and Itcush for councillor.

None of the three candidates for city mayor were any good, but I voted for Tremblay because his administration seems to be able to deal with the unions in an effective way. I also prefer to not turf leaders after one term unless they really screw up; it's hard to get anything done in one term.

Minor voting irregularities aside, Tremblay won handily... let's see if our "least of three evils" vote paid off.

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Bush aide won't rule out presidential pardon for Libby

Cheney's former chief of staff faces up to 30 years in jail, $1.25-million fine

STEWART M. POWELL and JUDY HOLLAND -- Hearst Newspapers

Wednesday, November 09, 2005


The White House yesterday refused to rule out a presidential pardon for Lewis Libby, the former vice-presidential aide indicted for allegedly obstructing a grand jury investigation into the White House unmasking of a secret CIA officer.

Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan left the door open for a possible pardon by U.S. President George W. Bush after Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate Democratic leader, and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, House Democratic leader, called for Bush to publicly rule out a step.

"No one is above the law - (not) Scooter Libby, Vice-President Cheney or President Bush," Reid declared.

Libby, 55, the former chief of staff and national security adviser to U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney who helped market the case for war in Iraq, faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines if convicted on all five felony charges stemming from alleged efforts to impede a grand jury investigation into the unmasking of secret CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Retired ambassador Joseph Wilson has accused the White House of leaking his wife's undercover identity to retaliate against his criticism of the Bush administration for using what he said was twisted intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in order to justify invading Iraq in 2003.

McClellan, asked twice if Bush would pledge not to pardon Libby, declined to discuss "an ongoing legal proceeding."

"I'm not going to speculate about any matters relating to it," McClellan said, adding: "There is a legal proceeding that is going on relating to that individual. Under our system, there is a presumption of innocence, and we're not going to comment on it while it is continuing. And I'm not going to - certainly not going to - speculate about it as well."

Reid later said "it speaks volumes" that McClellan refused to address the question, adding: "It would be very simple for the president to say, 'I am not going to pardon Scooter Libby or anyone else connected with the mess.' "

McClellan confronted the pardon issue as the first of 3,000 White House staffers began mandatory, hour-long training sessions on the legal handling of classified information.

Look, we all knew you were going to pardon the bastard, but do you have to be so crass about it? I mean, come on. Now you're just thumbing your nose at everybody.