Scooter crashes

Dan Froomkin - No Remorse, No Mercy - washingtonpost.com:

Libby has never admitted that he did anything wrong, and his defense team argued in court filings that because special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald had proved no underlying crime in the case, Libby deserved a relatively light sentence. In my Friday column, I wondered whether that wasn't he same as arguing that Libby should be rewarded because his obstruction was successful. Walton apparently agreed.

The judge also poured cold water over defense arguments that some of his legal decisions during the trial had been flawed and would be overturned on appeal. 'I think all those opinions are correct,' Walton said, according to the invaluable liveblogging by Marcy Wheeler at firedoglake.com....

Walton, 58, was first appointed to a judgeship on the D.C. Superior Court in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, served as associate director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and then in 2001 was appointed to the federal bench by President Bush. In 2004, Bush named Walton to chair a commission investigating ways to curb inmate rape, and last month Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. appointed him to a seat on the respected Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

"Despite his Republican patrons, fellow judges and lawyers who appear before him say Walton's decisions do not appear to be guided by politics but by a tough-on-crime mentality. . . .

"During the case, Walton chided the defense for leading him to believe that Libby would testify in his own defense. But Libby never took the stand."