The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : RE: The Outrage Only Grows

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Quin, that Krauthammer article you mentioned is probably the best case I've yet read for a presidential pardon. Like no other columnist, he has the ability to make such clear and simple arguments that should be obvious, but often get lost in the noise:

Scooter Libby has just been convicted of four felonies that could theoretically give him 25 years in jail for . . . what? Misstating when he first heard a certain piece of information, namely the identity of Joe Wilson's wife....

(Libby) was famously multitasking a large number of national security and domestic issues, receiving hundreds of pieces of information every day from dozens of sources. Yet special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald chose to make Libby's misstatements about the timing of the receipt of one piece of information -- Mrs. Wilson's identity -- the great white whale of his multimillion-dollar prosecutorial juggernaut.

By all accounts I've read, Libby's conviction came down to his contention that he heard something from Tim Russert on Thursday, and other testimony that he had known it on Monday and Tuesday.

The one issue I'd take with Krauthammer's column is that he recommends an immediate pardon of Libby, but he doesn't address the political ramifications of such a move. Sure, it's easy enough for us to say, Bush should pardon Libby this instant, and to hell with what the liberals think. But the reality is that President Bush has very little political capital left, and what little he does have, he needs to spend fighting Democratic efforts to force him to surrender in Iraq. However justified a pardon may be, the bottom line is that most Americans would see it as President Bush using his power to let Dick Cheney's convicted crony off the hook. The media will make sure that's the case, guaranteed. If you take a step back from the emotions of the moment, there's a strong case to be made for President Bush to let the appeals process run its course before deciding whether or not to pardon Libby.

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Iraq