That's the gist of editorial roundup compiled by the Washington Post. If, as David Brooks argued in yesterday's NY Times, "President Bush’s decision in the case of I. Lewis Libby Jr. was exactly right," President Bush had hoped to put an end to the Libby scandal by cleverly compromising between pardon and prison, commuting Libby's sentence to probation. If not, the President's action may instead have turned out to have been too clever by half. The Libby scandal is now a campaign issue for November, while Democrats promise to make the commutation decision, and Vice President Cheney's possible involvement, into a subject for congressional investigations. Will this prove to be a turning point marking the beginning of the end for the Bush administration, in the way that the 18-minute gap in Watergate tapes began the unravelling of the Nixon era?
It's hard to predict, but if I were the Democrats I'd have someone watching Scooter Libby like a hawk to see if he does anything that might violate probation--in the way the DC Mayor Marion Barry has been hounded over issues like late filing of income tax returns. If Libby is ever found to violate probation--the court may be able to send him to jail on a new charge, re-opening the scandal in the midst of a ever-heating Presidential election cycle. Whatever happens, it may not be pretty for Libby, the President, the Vice President, or the US Congress...
In which case, I look forward to reading David Brooks' column about Scooter Libby a year from now.
