Part 1 of 2: Scooter Libby Roundtable with Brit Hume, Fred Barnes, and Former Beirut Embassy Station Chief William Buckley (deceased)

BRIT HUME: The Libby case was not something very major.

SHIMMY: I won't let you speak, Brit Hume, until you wipe the blood from your lapel.

FRED BARNES: You can pardon for different reasons, Shimmy. This goes way back to the founders.

SHIMMY: I'm a strict constructionist. If Tony doesn't do a full change of my litter box after 7 days, then I leave him a gift pile shaped like an Abu Ghraib pyramid.

BRIT HUME: George Washington pardoned the perpetrators of the Whiskey Rebellion. Thomas Jefferson pardoned those convicted under the Alien and Sedition Acts. This goes way back to the founders.

SHIMMY: What did I tell you about the blood on your lapel, Brit Hume?

FRED BARNES: Remember Bush's father pardoned Caspar Weinberger.

SHIMMY: Sometimes I drop an Abu Ghraib pyramid anyway. No one can stop me.

FRED BARNES: Bush's father pardoned Caspar Weinberger when he'd been indicted for some connection -- I forget what it was -- with Iran-Contra.

SHIMMY: He was indicted by Iran-Contra independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh for lying to the independent counsel during its investigation.

FRED BARNES: In this case, the commuting power is for political reasons. I think that's what the President has done here.