Reply #2: Why? He's not arguing that Libby is innocent. He is arguing that by pardoning Libby Bush gets his [View All]

[SemiCharmedQuark]

fingerprints all over that case instead of pretending his corrupt administration had nothing to do with it.

"But if the President pardons Libby, and by this act makes the case his own, he will have picked up a portion of the cost. Libby will fall back, restored to obscurity. Bush will step forward and take the lead role. He will have to explain himself; he will have to answer questions.

For Libby, the pardon does not come without cost; for in accepting the pardon, he effectively accepts rather than continues to contest his guilt. "A pardon", one court has stated, "proceeds not upon the theory of innocence, but implies guilt." And if Libby does not serve time, 30 months exacted from the Fall Guy, how much should anyone really care? Libby is not going to flip; he is not going to rat out Dick Cheney. He will just be the Fall Guy, the minor actor in a play that, if Bush never takes the stage with a pardon, closes soon to disappointing reviews."