Take the Heat or Get out of the Kitchen?

"It would be a travesty for him to go off to prison. The president will take some heat for it. So what? He takes heat for everything."

That's what former Ambassador Richard Carlson says, according to BBC, about the possibility of a Presidential pardon for his friend Scooter Libby, who has now had his appeal for a delayed sentence shot down by a panel of three judges. The judgment on the appeal comes after the judges pronounced that there was not any "substantial question" raised by the appeal.

We should see shortly, whether or not President Bush decides to grant his loyal White House staffer the coveted pardon. And with conservatives largely in agreement for giving him that pardon, I'd put my money on Libby walking away from his ordeal a free man.

The man perjured himself under oath, and obstructed justice during the investigation and trial in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case. The truth probably would have incriminated the White House in the incident, and the blame may have gone right to the top, or very close to it. But old Scooter is taking one for the team, and I'll be highly surprised if he ends up taking it too hard. If the pardon doesn't come, he'll be serving 30 months in the slammer, or some ritzy Club Fed mock-up of prison anyway.