CITIZEN ALERT v1.233TONY SNOW BEAT DOWN

For those that think the American media is just a pawn of the government I ask you to read the transcript of today's press briefing with White House Press Sec. Tony Snow at the White House. The reporters rip him a new one as he stutters and bumbles his way through trying to explain the President was right in commuting Libby's sentence. Nice try Tony.

Here's a preview of a reporter asking a pointed question and then Snow going off on some bizarre - I don't know what he's talking about:

Q Why didn't he consult with Justice Department officials? Officials in his own Justice Department say normally someone would at least serve some jail time before a sentence is actually commuted. Why didn't he consult with his own Justice Department?

MR. SNOW: Well, a couple of things. First, quite often when you're dealing with sentences of this sort, they also have to deal with, as you point out, sentences that are ongoing or sometimes cases that have gotten a bit stale and people are trying to refresh their memories about the particulars of the case. The same would be true of the prosecutor, because they're quite often consulted for the same reason. Here you have a case that's still ongoing in the court system. It's not like people's memories are fuzzy about the details or the circumstances. The Attorney General, himself, was recused, as you know, in this case.

But the answer, Ed, is that it is certainly -- in some cases, people do such consultations. In this case -- and they do it for the reasons I've just cited. These tend to be, can you go back and fill me in on what happened in that case. If you take a look at the rash of pardons and commutations at the end of the Clinton era, a lot of that was people running around trying to find paperwork to figure out what the facts were. So let me just --

Q Well, why no jail time, though?

MR. SNOW: I'm sorry, what?

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