Pardon

Our zoo needs money so it can remain accredited by some snooty zoological society types, so here's an idea: Sell the naming rights to the new baby elephant. We could end up with something like Comcast the Elephant at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. I realize that twists the tongue, but we could be talking hundreds of thousands to keep the lights on and the lions fed. Or maybe this would work: The Constellation Energy Elephant at the Maryland Zoo - $1 million in utility rebates over the next 10 years and the state forgets all questions about the 1999 deregulation deal.

WASHINGTON -- Saudi King Abdullah's pardon of the "Qatif girl" - who was gang-raped and then sentenced to 200 lashes and six months imprisonment for "improper mingling" - is welcome news. With something less than gratitude, Westerners are nonetheless relieved. It seems obvious that the king's decision was influenced in part by pressures both from the international community, including the United States, and within Saudi Arabia, where some writers and others bravely expressed outrage and embarrassment.

Where the Ravens fall in the latest power rankings: ESPN.com No. 25: A day after his team lost its seventh straight game, coach Brian Billick thought it was the appropriate time to announce that he will be back next season. You'll pardon Ravens fans if they're not exactly high-fiving each other about the news. CBSSports.com No. 26: After that loss to the Patriots, they packed it in against the Colts. Maybe it's time to see whether Troy Smith can be the long-term answer, although it won't happen this week.

The president defended his decision last week to commute the 2 1/2 -year prison term of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. in the CIA leak case. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. "I rule nothing in or nothing out," Bush said when asked about whether he might pardon Libby before leaving office in January 2009. Democrats and the prosecutor in the case were sharply critical of the move. ?I made a judgment, a considered judgment. I stand by it.? President Bush

WASHINGTON -- The White House exchanged volleys yesterday with former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, over the question of executive clemency, with each side accusing the other of unpardonable acts. Twice yesterday the White House challenged criticism from the former president and Senator Clinton, a New York Democrat, directed at President Bush for commuting the prison sentence of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. The Clintons sought to distinguish Bill Clinton's record on pardons, accusing Bush of attempting to protect the White House from scrutiny in sparing Libby prison time.

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge refused yesterday to delay the start of the prison sentence for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. in the CIA leak case while he appeals his conviction, meaning he could be ordered to surrender within two months. The ruling intensifies the legal and political drama surrounding Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of perjury, making false statements and obstructing justice. Judge Reggie B. Walton said yesterday that he found no reason to postpone Libby's sentence of 2 1/2 years in prison for four felony counts.

The nation's 38th president didn't live quite long enough to bask in the glow of the latest assessment of his presidency, Gerald R. Ford, by the historian Douglas Brinkley. Ford, who died Dec. 26, would have seen that his pardon of Richard M. Nixon has not only faded as a negative in the eyes of most Americans, but also is now judged a distinct positive. Moreover, Brinkley gives Ford high marks for restoring Americans' faith in their government as well as for several foreign and domestic successes.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. granted clemency to 18 people yesterday, bringing to 249 the number of pardons and commutations he has issued in his term. Yesterday's clemency orders went to: Marie T. Alexis, 54, convicted of battery in 1990; Debra Y. Blowe, 50, convicted of welfare fraud in 1977; Timothy Breth, 55, convicted of breaking and entering and seven counts of larceny in 1970, and possession of controlled dangerous substance and paraphernalia in 1974; Tammy L. Carper, 41, convicted of distribution of phencyclidine in 1984; and Alverta L. Chapman, 47, convicted of shoplifting in 1978.

He stumbled down the steps of Air Force One, fought 12 percent inflation with campaign buttons, presided over the nation's ignominious departure from Vietnam and tried to inoculate every American with a swine flu vaccine that proved more dangerous than the disease. He called himself "a Ford, not a Lincoln," but by some reckoning the only never-elected president of the United States was a bit of a lemon. And yet Gerald R. Ford Jr., who died Tuesday at 93, proved the man for his moment - an affable antidote to the toxic Richard M. Nixon's criminal abuses of presidential power.

WASHINGTON -- Flyer and Fryer might be America's luckiest turkeys. Thanks to an official presidential pardon, neither is in danger of being jabbed in the thigh with a meat thermometer today. "Flyer is probably wondering where he's going to wind up tomorrow. He's probably thinking he's going to end up on somebody's table," President Bush said during a ceremony yesterday morning in the White House Rose Garden. "Well, I'm happy to report that he and Fryer both have many tomorrows ahead of them."