The best laid plans...

and all of that. I'm going to be a full-timer again this week. I can't really complain given how flexible my job is and how much time I'm able to take off when the kids are sick during the school year but I will admit to feeling just the tiniest, teeniest bit sad about it. Ah well, the judge on the case volunteered to give up his actual vacation to see this resolved and the clients have made enormous personal and financial sacrifices so I will see it through without further complaint. And I think I'd feel a whole lot better about it if I thought it was going to resolve well but instead I feel a sense of impending doom.

So, how about that Scooter Libby commutation? I can't type the word I thought when I heard the news. I've never said that word out loud. But at least we can be certain that this is a President who clearly has given up any thoughts about his legacy. I really have no stomach for the spin from the right anymore. If they believe 1/10 of the stuff they spew, I am afraid the divide is beyond repair. I eagerly await their reaction the next time a Democratic President pardons one of his cronies. And have no doubt, it will happen. If the current state of our government has accomplished anything, it's to make me an equal opportunity cynic. So Scooter's defense fund will pay his fine and he will go to work for the Carlyle Group or some other large defense contractor or maybe the World Bank or maybe he'll just become a lobbyist for some anti-regulation, highly polluting industrial interest but either way, this whole sorry episode will soon be a blip on Scooter's memory as he lives out the rest of his life being compensated for keeping Cheney out of the hot seat.

Eh. Well, Nancy Pelosi and Trent Lott will continue to coordinate their seersucker summer outfits and the party leadership will write letters about how disgraceful it all is and the American people will go back to wondering what's in Paris' garbage today. Hey, I think I read that Prince William and his girlfriend got back together! See, all is not lost.