The truth is too funny to be told

By Capt. Fogg

So, Mr. Corleone, what kind of hat were you wearing the night Mr. Brazzi was shot?

Objection your honor! Answering that question would subject my client to ridicule.

Somehow that was something I would never expect to hear in a courtroom -- until today. To be sure I've never attended law school, and some idiotic defense may have escaped my notice, but our president has been to law school and yet he seems to be comfortable supporting a comical defense raised by the comical Bush administration.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan was apparently as surprised as I was to hear the Obama administration's lawyers insist that former Dick Cheney's statements to a special prosecutor about Valerie Plame need to be kept secret -- are you ready for this? -- because it might make people laugh on The Daily Show.

I don't want a future vice president to say, I'm not going to cooperate with you because I don't want to be fodder for "The Daily Show,"

said Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith. His position being that he doesn't want to become a fact-finder for political enemies.

Of course, it's interesting to speculate that the more enemies a politician has made, the more immune he would be to prosecution should this defense become precedent and the less honesty he would owe to his constituents, but I'm so baffled and confused by this position and the Justice Department that is now supporting it that I'll let you speculate upon the future of justice in America. Just don't laugh too hard, you might embarrass a protected personage.