Let’s call this the official Scooter Libby sentence page. (Note the lack of focus on the MSNBC site about Jefferson).

Comment away. Should begin about 9:30am. I’ll say it again, regardless of the sentence he won’t see a day in jail and Bush WILL pardon him on the last day of office (about the time the appeals would run out.

UPDATE: Still nothing, but this isn’t good.

“Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s hopes of avoiding prison in the CIA leak case began to dim Tuesday as a federal judge ruled he could face a longer sentence because the investigation he obstructed was so serious.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is the highest-ranking official convicted of a crime since the Iran Contra affair.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald wants to put Libby in prison for up to three years because the investigation he was convicted of obstructing‚Äîthe leak of a CIA operative’s identity‚Äîwas so serious. Libby’s attorneys are seeking no jail time and argue that it’s unfair to increase the sentence simply because the investigation was serious.

“No one was ever charged. Nobody ever pleaded guilty,” attorney William Jeffress said. “The government did not establish the existence of an offense.”

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton didn’t accept that. By that reasoning, Walton said, witnesses benefit if they aggressively obstruct investigations so prosecutors can’t make their case.

“I just can’t buy in on that being good social policy,” said Walton, who has a reputation as a tough sentencing judge. “It’s one thing if you obstruct a petty larceny. It’s another thing if you obstruct a murder investigation.”

“Murder Investigation??”

A “He said, she said, but he said before she said” is comparable to murder? Has this farse lost all touch with reason or what? Strong case for leniency here, and grounds for appeal.

UPDATE II: Libby get’s 2 1/2 years:

“Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stood calmly before a packed courtroom as a federal judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt.

“People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem,” U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said.

Libby was convicted in March of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

The highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair, Libby has steadfastly maintained his innocence.

“It is respectfully my hope that the court will consider, along with the jury verdict, my whole life,” Libby said in brief remarks to the judge.

Walton fined Libby $250,000 and placed him on probation for two years following his release from prison. Walton did not immediately address whether Libby could remain free pending appeal.”

Er “Do anything that might create a problem”? Oh, no one ever did that in Government. Unbelievable.

Still, less than what Fitzgerald asked for, and basically what I expected. Again, he’ll stay free pending appeals and WILL obtain a pardon via Bush.

UPDATE III: MSNBC has more coverage. Compare their ‘emphasis’ with that of William Jefferson’s indictment - like where?

Meanwhile Lori Byrd at Wizbang notes the descrepancy between Libby and Sandy Burglar.

UPDATE IV: Capt Ed:

“Regardless of the ludicrous nature of a three-year investigation where the perpetrator never got charged with the initial suspected crime, Libby got what he deserved, having lied to investigators and the grand jury. People cannot commit perjury to block an investigation and expect to simply walk away from it. A jury concluded that Libby did exactly that, and the sentence is commensurate with the crime.

Will the conviction survive on appeal? Likely it will.”

Possibly, but I see many avenues of appeal - more on that later, howbeit it won’t be necessary.

UPDATE V: Sticky Notes asks, “Whats wrong with this picture?”

UPDATE VI: Nearly two hours and Libby is still on the front page of MSNBC.com. By contrast William Jefferson’s indictment headlined about ten minutes.

UPDATE VII: Tom McGuire weighs in.

UPDATE VIII: National Review editors again - “Pardon Him“.

Also read Clarice Feldman’s write up on Libby, simply tells us what a travesty this farse was.

UPDATE IX: Jeff Goldstein:

“For lying and obstruction of justice. Whereas Joe Wilson, for lying and attempting to undermine the administration‚Äôs case for invading Iraq, is sentenced to the lecture circuit, and given a hero‚Äôs welcome by anti-war types who believe, with Machiavelli‚Äôs parodic narrator in The Prince, that the ends justify the means.

Truth is a luxury; the message is the thing. Seems not only is Justice blind, but she‚Äôs getting a bit tone deaf to irony, as well.”

UPDATE X: LAST UPDATE: All you need to know how screwed up the justice system is in America is contained in this Time Magazine screed:

“When I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was sentenced Tuesday to a surprisingly long term of 30 months in prison for perjury and obstruction of justice, he became a victim of one of the most troubling aspects of federal sentencing laws ‚Äî allowing harsher sentences for a crime that was never actually proven.

United States District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, following his conviction in March of lying to federal investigators about leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby was also fined $250,000. He will appeal the punishment, though Walton will not decide until next week whether to allow Libby to remain free during the appeal or send him to prison almost immediately. President Bush has said he will not address the issue of a pardon for Libby at least until the appeals process is exhausted.

The leak was the key issue for most Americans, the crux of an apparent White House campaign to discredit Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, who wrote a 2003 op-ed piece debunking WMD justifications for the Iraq war. But while outing a CIA agent can be illegal, neither Libby nor anyone else was actually charged with doing that to Plame. In fact, pre-trial maneuvering found the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, insisting that this was not a case about a leak and fighting defense requests for documents about whether Plame was ever a covert agent, a status that could have made intentionally leaking her identity a crime.

But when the issue of sentencing came around, Fitzgerald changed his tune, arguing that the underlying (and uncharged) crime was so serious as to warrant a sentence twice as long as what the federal probation office recommended; notably, his brief included the revelation that the CIA did consider Plame’s identity classified, at least for 18 months. And Tuesday, Walton apparently bought it, declaring before he announced the sentence that Libby could be considered an accessory to the underlying crime because, at least in part, his obstruction of justice made it all but impossible for the government to make the case for that crime.”

Matt Cooper, line one, it’s the Devil.