Execute Rove and Libby?
Fitzmas will soon be upon us, and the right wing blogosphere is up in arms over the comments of Al Franken, who on the the Late Show with David Letterman said that Karl Rove and "Scooter" Libby will likely be executed because they committed treason. Al then reiterated his statements to Matt Lauer on the Today Show:

"Oh they, they'’ll be indicted. I, I am absolutely sure and this is about, of course, the war in Iraq really. It'’s about the justification for the war and smearing Joe Wilson by outing his wife who'’s a CIA agent. George H.W. Bush, the President'’s father, said, as, when he was head of the CIA, that outing a CIA agent is treason. I, I agree. So I think that Rove and Libby will be executed."

On the Letterman show Franken also said:

"“I don't know how I feel about it [execution] because I'm basically against the death penalty, but they are going to be executed it looks like."”

The right wingers obviously cannot take a joke, but what they are really up in arms about, and what they perceive is the hypocrisy of the media, is how can members of the media attack Pat Robertson for saying that the US should "take out" Hugo Chavez, and then laugh when Franken says Rove and Libby should be executed? Clearly these conservatives never took logic and critical thinking courses in college, if they had they would have voted for Kerry, and that is the proof in the pudding, but I digress. Let me explain to these idiots (can't think of a better word) the difference, Pat Robertson was calling for the assassinationn of a freely elected head of state because the US doesn't agree with his (disastrous) policies. Al Franken on the other hand was simply pointing out that the law that might have been broken was signed into law by George H. W. Bush, and Bush Sr. stated that outing a CIA agent is treason. Treason is punishable by death under US law, as John Conn learned back in Texas in 1862 (hasn't happened since, and how eerily appropriate). So to set the record straight, Franken was not calling for the assassination of Rove or Libby, he was being funny, and he was spot on.

Al Franken really is a genius, he knew this would get headlines, and his new book The Truth ~with jokes~ has been hovering between #2 and #3 on Amazon.