Matt Ortega

In the wake of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s conviction on four of five counts for perjury and related offenses during the course of the CIA leak investigation, Vice President Dick Cheney’s office is described by White House aides as “out of control.” The conviction has unsettled Cheney.

Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff and Richard Wolffe report:

The prospect of Libby’s serving time is fueling an intense debate in Washington: should President Bush pardon him? Conservatives immediately began agitating for clemency, arguing that Fitzgerald, unable to convict anyone for leaking, had made Libby a scapegoat. Vice President Dick Cheney may also weigh in. Former and current colleagues, who asked not to be named talking about private conversations, say Cheney has been shaken by the prosecution of his former chief of staff. […]

President George W. Bush, in his first six years of in the White House, has issued the least amount of pardons of any president in the last 100 years, according to a pardon lawyer.

At his first press conference as president in February 2001, Bush set himself apart from Bill Clinton, who had caused a stir with several controversial pardons in his final days. When it came to granting pardons, Bush said, “I’ll have the highest of high standards.”

Yes, and President Bush also said, if elected, he would restore honor and integrity to the White House. And look at how that played out. More on Bush’s pardon standard:

But Bush has abided by long-standing Justice guidelines that spell out who should be eligible. Those rules say a person shouldn’t even be considered for a pardon until five years after he’s completed his sentence. “I know the way he’s approached pardons,” says Bush’s former press secretary Scott McClellan. “If you boil it down, it’s two things. One, that they serve their time. And two, that they express remorse for the crime.” By those standards, Libby doesn’t make the cut, especially if he pursues an appeal and continues to insist he did nothing wrong.

Scott McClellan, the former administration press secretary, that embarrassed himself when he told the White House press corps that top political adviser, Karl Rove, and Libby “assured” him that they were not involved. In other words, as White House aides have privately expressed to the media, Libby is likely to get a pardon from the president.

That doesn’t mean Libby will be denied a pardon. Former White House aides, who didn’t want to be named discussing Bush’s strategizing, say they believe the president will ultimately grant him one. Libby may just have to wait, probably until after the ‘08 election. “The president has absolute authority, and we’ve seen in the final days of a presidency all bets are off,” McClellan says. “But I’d be surprised if he did anything before the legal process has run its course, and there’s been a request through formal channels.”

As you can tell, there’s a reason why the Bush White House bagged McClellan as press secretary in the first place: He’s a fool.

Isikoff and Wolffe closed it out:

That reluctance to bend the rules may stem from a feeling inside the White House that Libby, though loyal and well liked, went too far. Even if Bush is “sad” about Libby’s conviction, Libby did lie to the FBI and made the administration look bad. “What you saw was a vice president’s office that was out of control,” says a former White House staffer who asked not to be named talking about internal discussions. According to trial testimony, White House aides Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer both disclosed the identity of Wilson’s wife to reporters. But the way the White House sees it, Rove and Fleischer “went up to the line,” the staffer says, “but they didn’t cross it. The vice president’s office crossed it.” Now Bush has to decide how long he’ll make Libby wait on the other side. [emphasis added]

Rove and Fleischer “went up to the line” by disclosing Plame’s identity to reporters and Libby, on the orders of the Vice President, “crossed it” for doing the same thing?