No Pardon?

Via Newsweek, it appears that Scooter doesn't qualify for a pardon under Justice Department guidelines. Not that that would stop Bush if he had his heart set on it.

But there’s one significant roadblock on the path to Libby’s salvation: Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff does not qualify to even be considered for a presidential pardon under Justice Department guidelines.

From the day he took office, Bush seems to have followed those guidelines religiously. He's taken an exceedingly stingy approach to pardons, granting only 113 in six years, mostly for relatively minor fraud, embezzlement and drug cases dating back more than two decades. Bush’s pardons are “fewer than any president in 100 years,” according to Margaret Love, former pardon attorney at the Justice Department.

It occurs to me that there's another reason chimpy might not grant Scooter the vindication the right thinks he deserves- Bush is pissed. He's pissed at Cheney and his office for embarrassing him and causing this public relations nightmare. And he might just let Scooter go to prison out of spite, which would completely square with Suzanne Malveaux's reporting yesterday that the WH was, "going to cut Libby loose."

My only regret is that Karl won't be occupying the adjacent cell.

Hat tip to pony-boy Holden.