When, Not If

Frank Rich pens a column on the question of whether President Bush will end up pardoning Scooter Libby. In Why Libby’s Pardon Is a Slam Dunk (also found at Rozius Unbound), Rich opines:

Even by Washington’s standards, few debates have been more fatuous or wasted more energy than the frenzied speculation over whether President Bush will or will not pardon Scooter Libby. Of course he will.

A president who tries to void laws he doesn’t like by encumbering them with “signing statements” and who regards the Geneva Conventions as a nonbinding technicality isn’t going to start playing by the rules now. His assertion last week that he is “pretty much going to stay out of” the Libby case is as credible as his pre-election vote of confidence in Donald Rumsfeld. The only real question about the pardon is whether Mr. Bush cares enough about his fellow Republicans’ political fortunes to delay it until after Election Day 2008.

* * * *

The climactic chapter of the Libby saga unfolded last week when the guilty verdict in his trial coincided, all too fittingly, with the Congressional appearance of two Iraq veterans, one without an ear and one without an eye, to recount their subhuman treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

I also thought that it was a matter of when, not if, in Scooter Can't Skate Out of this One. However, Rich does his usual excellent job of weaving together all the related threads in this don't miss op-ed.

Tags: Commentary, Frank Rich, Libby, Law, Politics