Dana Milbank is a great political columnist at the Washington Post. He flavors his writing with a hilarity and mockery not usually found in the Post's newsy pages (though certainly found in the Style section). We fear the Washington Post will lose him to The Daily Show any minute now.

Last week, David Addington was the subject of Milbank's Washington Sketch. Addington is chief of staff and former legal counsel to VP Dick Cheney. He replaced Scooter Libby after Libby's fall from grace. Addington is a Duke law grad and "the most powerful man you've never heard of."

He's also mean and scary, judging from these exchanges during his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last week:

Could the president ever be justified in breaking the law? "I'm not going to answer a legal opinion on every imaginable set of facts any human being could think of," Addington growled.

Did he consult Congress when interpreting torture laws? "That's irrelevant," he barked.

Would it be legal to torture a detainee's child? "I'm not here to render legal advice to your committee," he snarled. "You do have attorneys of your own."

The dialogue reminds us of arguing with a precocious, but mean-spirited, 10-year-old. Except this one has a lot of power. And helped determine the country's policies for torturing detainees. More scary Addington after the jump.

CNN reports that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been disbarred in the District of Columbia:

The former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney was convicted last year of lying to a grand jury and federal agents probing the leak of the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson.

"When a member of the Bar is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, disbarment is mandatory," the District of Columbia Court of Appeals wrote in its opinion, which is posted on its Web site.

"When convictions on more than one count are involved, disbarment is mandated if any one of them involves moral turpitude," the court added.

The D.C. Court of Appeals opinion is posted [PDF]. POTUS commuted Libby's 30-month prison term last year. So Scooter may be disbarred, but at least he's not behind bars.

Good editorial cartoon of "Scooter" flying off cliff while Cheney looks on, by Steve Breen of Copley News Service, available here (click on thumbnail to enlarge).

Cheney's former chief of staff disbarred [CNN]

Part of a blogger’s job description is to shamelessly rip off stuff from the mainstream media. So we’re going to follow in the footsteps of the ABA Journal and the WSJ Law Blog, and name ATL’s first annual Lawyer of the Year. (Of course, it's not that original an idea to begin with, insofar as it's inspired by Time magazine's Person of the Year.)

The WSJ crew is still accepting nominations, so we don’t know the identity of their pick. But the ABA Journal’s honoree for 2007, Alberto Gonzales, has generated some controversy. The Journal's editor and publisher, Edward A. Adams, explained the pick to the Washington Post: "It's about who has had the most effect in the world of lawyers this year. We're not saying Gonzales is good or bad. We're just saying this is the leading newsmaker in our part of the world."

Additional discussion, plus how to submit your nomination for ATL's Lawyer of the Year, after the jump.

* Georgia Supreme Court expedites Genarlow Wilson hearing. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

* Libby gets supervised release to wrap up his sentencing. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Off with their food safety head. [BBC]

* Georgia judge dies after beating received during robbery two weeks ago. [Fulton County Daily Report]

From The BLT, shortly before 2:00 p.m.:

From Emma Schwartz, inside the courtroom:

Scooter Libby’s stable of legal thoroughbreds failed him. Moments ago Judge Reggie Walton ruled that Libby does not get bail pending appeal. It’s jail time.

Update / clarification: Libby wasn't taken into custody today. It will take at least six to eight weeks for the Bureau of Prisons to determine where Libby will be imprisoned and to set a reporting date for him to show up to prison.

No. Bail. [The BLT: The Blog of the Legal Times]
Judge Won't Delay Libby Prison Term [Associated Press via Washington Post]

Last Friday, in the Scooter Libby case, Judge Reggie Walton delivered quite the benchslap. Some brief background, from Ana Marie Cox:

A group of exceedingly prominent law professors (including Alan Dershowitz and Robert Bork) filed an amicus brief to Judge Reggie Walton [on Friday], arguing that the Libby verdict could possibly be overturned on appeal because of the "close question" about the constitutionality of the special prosecutor....

I was struck (as were others) by the footnote Judge Walton appended to his agreement to have the brief submitted:

Here's the feisty footnote:

It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors of well-respected schools are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the Court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of our nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it.

Judge Walton, feel free to call upon The Dersh for help in future cases. He's more than happy to offer his opinion on any subject under the sun. In fact, you may quickly come to regret your "call for such assistance" from that loquacious luminary.

(But you might want to give Judge Bork a break. He's a little preoccupied right now....)

Update: The WSJ Law Blog has more here, including the names of additional celebrity professors on the brief.

Shorter Reggie: I Will Remember Your Interest in Public Service the Next Time Someone Really Needs It [The Next Hurrah]
Libby's Last Stand [Swampland / Time.com]
Law Blog Footnote of the Day: the Scooter Libby Trial [WSJ Law Blog]

(Gavel bang: Several email correspondents, plus a commenter.)

* Banned children's book about Cuba, "Vamos a Cuba," now in court. [Miami Herald]

* "Hit Movie 'Knocked Up' With a Lawsuit." [WSJ Law Blog]

* Should Libby be pardoned? [LA Times via BLT]

* More pardoning analysis from NYT. [New York ]

Thirty months? Judge Walton, that was way harsh. Paris Hilton won't even serve thirty days.

Guess the mash notes from former Administration officials like Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, or Beltway insiders like Mary Matalin and James Carville, didn't help much.

Thoughts on the Libby sentence from Guidelines guru Doug Berman are available here and here.

Libby Sentenced to 2 1/2 Years in Prison [Associated Press]
Libby gets within-guideline sentence of 30 months [Sentencing Law and Policy]
30 Months for Scooter! [Wonkette]
Children by the Millions Sing for Scooter Libby [Wonkette]
Scooter Libby’s Sentence: 30 Months in Prison; $250,000 fine [WSJ Law Blog]

* Yawn... [MSNBC]

* Job opportunities for the disbarred. [ABANet]

* Libby sentencing today. [CNN]

* Advice for Paris. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Polsky divorce settlement hits $184 million. [CNN]

Former Solicitor General Ted Olson, now back at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, is one of the nation's top appellate advocates. He's an amazing lawyer and a distinguished public servant. And he -- together with his wife, the beautiful and brilliant Lady Booth -- knows how to throw a killer wedding.

But Olson does seem to have an unorthodox sense of client conflict rules. From Howard Kurtz's media column in today's Washington Post:

Now it can be told: Matt Cooper thought that Time magazine's strategy in the Valerie Plame leak investigation was "insane." He was unhappy when his lawyer wanted to simultaneously represent I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the man whose identity Cooper was risking jail to protect. And Judith Miller got on his nerves.

Cooper, who has left Time, is now Washington bureau chief for Portfolio, the glossy business magazine from Conde Nast that makes its debut today. The launch is cloaked in secrecy....

Cooper says he realized early on that he would probably lose the subpoena battle over his refusal to testify about his 2003 discussions regarding Plame with White House aides Libby and Karl Rove. But Time rejected Cooper's plea to compromise by seeking waivers of confidentiality from the officials. "Behind the scenes I desperately wanted to make a deal that could get us out of this mess," he writes.

Norman Pearlstine, then Time Inc.'s editor in chief, decided to hire conservative lawyer Ted Olson. But Cooper's opinion of the former solicitor general declined when Olson asked if he could also represent Libby, which Cooper saw as a conflict since "Libby's defense ultimately involved my word against his." Olson quickly backed off.

Our tipster notes: "I worked as an attorney at a federal agency in Washington for several years right after law school, and was frequently astonished by the casual approach to conflicts issues many private sector attorneys had there. Olson's is the worst proposal I have seen in many years."

But perhaps we're missing something. We're sure that some of you can come up with a defense of Olson's ability to represent both Cooper and Libby. We welcome your thoughts in the comments.

A Sorry Story, With Apology Yet to Come [Washington Post]

Earlier: Lady and Ted's Excellent Adventure: Wedding Photos That Rock

Okay, 'fess up. You didn't follow the Scooter Libby trial that closely. It struck you as kinda confusing, kinda boring.

You didn't read that much about the trial while it was going on -- maybe an article on the day of opening arguments, and an article or two after the verdict. Whenever the Libby case came up at cocktail parties, you tried to steer the talk towards Britney's shaved head, afraid of your ignorance being exposed.

Live in fear no longer. Just read this excellent Talk of the Town piece by Jeffrey Toobin, which tells you all you need to know about the case, in clear and concise fashion.

(We heart the MSM! They write about stuff like the Libby trial, so we don't have to.)

Talk of the Town: Verdicts [New Yorker]

Every time we step away from our computer, big news breaks. Here's a thread for discussion of the verdict in the Scooter Libby case.

We'll update this post with comments and links as we read the coverage.

***************************

Okay, so here's the Washington Post lede (which we like better than the NYT and AP ledes -- it's the most substantive and informative of the three):

A federal jury today convicted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of lying about his role in the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity, finding the vice president's former chief of staff guilty of two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice, while acquitting him of a single count of lying to the FBI.

It's a big victory for special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald (a proud graduate of Regis High School, which is also our alma mater). It's a blow for Libby's two talented defense lawyers: Theodore V. Wells Jr., of Paul Weiss, and William Jeffress Jr., of Baker Botts.

(Random digression: Ted Wells was at Lowenstein Sandler in New Jersey for many years, before he was wooed to the other side of the Hudson. Bill Jeffress was previously at the super-elite boutique of Miller Cassidy Larroca & Lewin, which was acquired by Baker Botts.)

During his closing argument, Ted Wells broke down in tears. Now he has real cause for crying.

His client must be even more sad. Per the Post:

Under federal sentencing guidlines, Libby faces a probable prison term of 1 1/2 to three years when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton June 5.

Update: As one of you notes, sentencing guru Doug Berman thinks Libby's sentence could go much higher. See here.

Libby reacted to the verdict stoically. Again from the Post:

As the jury forewoman read each guilty count in a clear, solemn voice, Libby was impassive, remaining seated at the defense table, gazing straight ahead and displaying no visible emotion. His wife, Harriet Grant, sat in the front row with tears in her eyes and was was embraced by friends. Later she hugged each of Libby's lawyers.

Personally we feel bad for Scooter Libby. Much of his defense rested upon claims of memory lapses, and we know all too well about memory problems. We blame our rapidly deteriorating memory upon blogging, which does strange things to one's mental architecture, and excessive consumption of artificial sweeteners.

Libby Found Guilty in CIA Leak Case [Washington Post]
Libby Guilty of Lying in C.I.A. Leak Case [New York Times]
Libby Found Guilty in CIA Leak Trial [Associated Press]

We've given it almost no coverage here at ATL (largely because it doesn't seem very amusing). But yes, in case you haven't heard, former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is being tried on perjury charges.

The jury has been deliberating for over two days. And they've just lost a member:

The presiding judge dismissed one female juror in her 70s, an art curator, after she disclosed to her peers that she had come into contact over the weekend with information about the case of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff. The foreperson reported it this morning to U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who interviewed the jurors and decided the female juror had not intentionally sought to ignore his orders that all 12 jurors avoid contact with media coverage and any other information about the Libby case.

So having contracted the informational cooties, she had to be booted. According to the Washington Post, "Libby and several defense attorneys wore broad smiles at the news of the woman's removal."

But why were they so pleased? This juror seemed to be an independent-minded sort:

The juror, who had white-blonde hair and wore large, stylish black-frame glasses and took extensive notes, distinguished herself from her peers at one point during the trial. On Valentine's Day, the jury filed into the courtroom's jury box at mid-afternoon, wearing identical red T-shirts with a white heart. She was the only juror who had not donned a T-shirt.

Might this juror have turned into a legal as well as fashion holdout? We'll never know.

Juror Dismissed in CIA Leak Trial [Washington Post]
Libby Juror Booted; Deliberations Go On [Associated Press]

Happy Valentine's Day!

* Miss Brazil wins lawsuit competition. [CNN]

* ABA: Pay the judges! [Law.com]

* Cheney and Libby will not testify in CIA leak trial. [CNN]

* What makes a good or bad law school exam answer? [Volokh]

* Dahlia Lithwick on SCOTUS and the death penalty. [Slate]

* A panel of the Seventh Circuit is made up entirely of Sixth Circuit judges sitting by designation. Of course, recusal seems to make sense when the defendant plotted to attack the Seventh Circuit's courthouse. [How Appealing]

* Novak testifies: he got the info from Armitage and Rove. [CNN]

* Pay the judges! [WSJ Law Blog]

* I've my got my mind on my merger and my merger's on my mind. [Law.com]

* More details constantly emerging from the Scooter Libby trial [CNN]

* That Boston duo is out of custody for ATHF ads that caused a bomb scare. They gave a bizarre press conference, insisting on speaking only about '70s haircuts. One reporter asked, "[Lawyer], are you disappointed by your client's behavior?" to which the attorney responded, "My client is a performance artist." [CNN]

* Yesterday an article discussed the NFL's IP enforcement. Today, they enforce. [SI]

* Of course, "Dodgeball" is also subject to IP enforcement. [Hollywood Reporter Esq.]

* When fantasy football meets "legal prowess," you get the WSJ Law Blog Football Hall of Fame. [WSJ Law Blog]

Have a great Super Sunday, Big Game weekend, lawyers! All billing stops at 6:25 EST.

* When you use YouTube to bootleg 24, the terrorists win. [WSJ Law Blog]

* North Carolina doctors refuse to play executioner; executions temporarily blocked. [Jurist]

* Wal-Mart agrees to cough up $33 million for overtime violations. [FindLaw]

* This wasn't the law already?. [AP via Yahoo!]

* Seven defendants, including the estate of Kenneth Lay, dismissed from Enron shareholder derivative suit. [Jurist]

* Can someone please fix the damn clock in the Lewis Libby courtroom, before every news outlet turns it into a metaphor? [New York Times]

[Ed. note: We'll get back to associate pay raises shortly. But for those of you with no interest in the staggeringly high sums being earned by your Biglaw buddies, Stella Q has some Non-Sequiturs for you.]

* I’m not sure how they do it, but Reputation Defender can rid cyberspace of slanderous detritus, even if you’re probably the one who put it out there in the first place. [Reputation Defender via Daily Candy]

* For those of you who are solo practitioners and/or have your face on a bus, then this service may actually make good business sense. [Blawg]

* So we’ve been preoccupied with Charney, Shanetta and the tightening of the golden handcuffs -- don’t forget the juicy bits (betrayal! secrets! lies! some racial stuff!?) coming out of the Scooter Libby trial too. [Dean’s World via Media Bloggers]

* Puns kill. [Law.com]

* Is it presumptuous for the gorgeous, ageless Sidney Poitier to identify with Thurgood Marshall? (The answer is no, doubters! The evidence lies in these 25 questions.) [Vanity Fair]

* Yeah, but do any of them look like this? Also, I welcome recommendations as to up-and-coming bloggers or just quirky, personal favorites. [Blawg Review]

* AG Gonzales: Federal judges are unqualified to make national security decisions. [MSNBC]

* AG Gonzales: Federal judges should be making national security decisions. [MSNBC; Washington Post]

* Affirmative action takes center stage at Boalt. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Dahlia asks, "Have the Supreme Court's opinions become suggestions in Texas?" [Slate]

* Linda discusses the Texas death penalty cases as well. [New York Times]

* Former Cendant Chairman Walter Forbes get sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison, on accounting fraud charges. The prosecution was handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey; Forbes was represented by Williams & Connolly. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Picking a jury for the Scooter Libby trial in D.C., the biggest small town in America: it ain't easy. [Washington Post]

* "Utah's highest court says don't diss the judiciary, or else it might diss-miss your case." [How Appealing]

* Major legal issues continue to arise at Gitmo. [Washington Post]

* Libby trial jury selection should take a few quick...months. [MSNBC]

* Should district judges appoint prosecutors? [New York Times via Concurring Opinions]

* North Carolina's Attorney General, Roy Cooper, answers Mike Nifong's cry for help. [New York Times]