Say Anything Blog

As if the initial partial pardon didn’t make enough heads on the left explode:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush said Tuesday he wouldn’t rule in or out a full pardon for former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby, after having commuted his 30-month prison sentence Monday.

The president’s comments came as he left the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he had been visiting military personnel wounded in the Iraq war.

White House spokesman Tony Snow also discussed the possibility of a pardon in the daily White House briefing.

“There is always a possibility or there’s an avenue open for anybody to petition for consideration of a pardon,” Snow told reporters. “As far as we know, that’s not been done, and we don’t know if it’s contemplated by Scooter Libby or his defense team.”

“The reason I will say I’m not going to close the door on a pardon is simply this: that Scooter Libby may petition for one. But the president has done what he thinks is appropriate to resolve this case,” Snow said.

If Bush were to do a two-stage pardon, you’d think he’d have done this initial part to keep Scooter out of jail and then the second full pardon dependent upon the outcome of his overall appeal.

Which still would have been a funny way to do it.  This partial pardon hasn’t really pleased the President’s base or his political enemies.  If he was going to do a pardon, he should have just gone the whole hog and got it over with.

On a related note, I see the Democrats are reacting in their typical fashion to anything Bush does that they don’t like.  Rep. John Conyers wants to investigate Libby’s pardon.  Because the Constitution isn’t clear on this matter, I guess:

...[The President] shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States

Like it or not, the President has this power and no amount of investigating on the part of Democrats is going to change that.  But I’m sure the investigation is more about dragging out the Libby headlines for as long as possible than any real question about the legality of the pardon.