Who will protect Scooter?

On Monday's ELPN broadcast, I surmised that Bush will take many unusual stands on various topics in the next year and a half, as he is a lame-duck president that is not the brains behind the operation in the first place, and has an opposition Congress that will try to block many of his actions anyway... hence, his recent stances on global warming and diplomacy with our "enemies."

We can now, firmly, add the Scooter Libby pardon to Bush's set of unusual stands. According to Dana Perino, Bush is "not going to intervene."

Bush seems to be standing alone in this, though. The editors of the National Review want an immediate pardon; Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol wonders if anyone can still respect Bush if he does not exercise the power of the pardon before Libby has to spend even one night in jail - and before Libby's appeal is even heard! Most of the GOP candidates for president also believe Libby should be pardoned; Giuliani ("...ultimately, there was no underlying crime involved") and Romney (Fitzgerald "clearly abused prosecutorial discretion") are the most vocal supporters of Libby. Reps. Hunter and Paul, along with former Govs. Huckabee and Gilmore, at least want to learn more about the case before calling for a pardon, and McCain is at least willing to let the appeal be heard before deciding on a pardon. What the candidates are forgetting is that obstruction of justice IS A CRIME.

VP Cheney has, as could be expected, has expressed "sadness" over the verdict; his statement (issued through a law firm, apparently!) sounds like one made by the actual criminal when someone has successfully taken the fall for his criminal actions.