Scooted: "Corrupt to the Core"

President Bush has commuted the prison sentence of Scooter Libby, convicted of obstruction of justice for lying to a grand jury.

In an interview on Countdown, Ambassador Joseph Wilson--husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame and the apparent target of the conspiracy to defame him for questioning a false basis for invading Iraq--said more than once that the Bush administration and Bush personally are "corrupt to the core."

What happens next? Americans may have suspected that Libby had lied to protect people higher up in the White House. Both VP Cheney and President Bush have been implicated in outing Plame, according to some investigating journalists. But now, by voiding the sentence in what Wilson says is a clear and understood quid pro quo for Libby's silence, most Americans are going to be confirmed in their belief that Libby lied to protect his bosses, and in doing so, obstructed justice.

Commuting this sentence is not in itself an impeachable offense. But Congressional Democrats have been wary about spending precious time investigating the many wrongs of this administration, for fear voters will turn against them, having endured the pointless harrassment of the Clinton administration. But now I suspect they are going to want to know what's really going on. We're just at the beginning of investigations that will dominate the rest of the Bush administration.