I don't believe a man and his family should be left twisting in the wind from a witch hunt simply because the MSM gets their kicks from it.
It all comes down to politics which is hard dirty game and Libby knew this all to well when he was appointed as the VP's chief of staff.
However loyal the White House are, can or should be to Libby they also have 2008 elections to think of and the Republican Party will not want anything that a liberal media can use against any Republican. In the MSM a Republican is a Republican.
You're where I am on this.... but. I understand the consequences, political and otherwise, of President Bush pardoning Libby now, but we all know it's the right thing to do. However there's more than one "right thing," particularly at this level of responsibility. I know that the President knows that it's not right to leave Libby hanging out there. But he is constrained by the other responsibilities that he has. It comes down to the cost, not to him, but to other things that both he and Libby have taken oaths to put before their own interests.
There is a quote I go back to often from a movie with Ben Kingsley (The Confession). His character has killed the doctor who killed his young son by operating on him while drunk. He's turned himself in and refuses to take a plea deal, preferring to get the truth out about flaws not only in his victim's but more importantly in the system that allowed them to do what they did and then go without punishment. It's a complex and ultimately flawed film, but it tackles the questions of dealing with competing "right things" as well as the inevitable corrupt self interest that also must be dealt with. The moral quandry of the movie is summed up in this line:
"People often think that it is hard to do the right thing. It is not hard to do the right thing; it is hard to know what the right thing is. Once you know what is right, then it is hard to not do the right thing.”
I think the right thing to do is pardon Libby now and not only live with the consequences but use the firestorm as a launching place for a counterattack against those enemies, foreign and domestic, who are waging war against decent people trying to do their jobs. I also know that the President has just a bit more information about what the real costs of that will be to other things that are ultimately far more important, in the grand scheme of things. I, for one, still trust George W. Bush and will defer to his judgment, even if I do still feel free to express my opinions, flawed though I admit they may be.
As importantly, based on what Libby has said and done (or not said and not done) I think that is his position, as well.