But he won’t. He doesn’t have the courage to stand up to the outrage it would elicit from the liberal media. He has already shown that. He failed to resist their call for an independent counsel to be appointed to investigate the supposed leak of Valerie Plame’s identity. He allowed the appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald even though Attorney General Ashcroft knew at the time that Richard Armitage was the ‘leaker’.

I’m not going into all the details again here. I’ve posted on this before. If you’re interested, there is a good summary of the case and reaction to the verdict at National Review Online.

Why Fitzgerald was allowed to proceed with an investigation that focused on White House ‘insiders’ when he already knew that Armitage was the ‘leaker’ is beyond comprehension. In my opinion another independent counsel should investigate that.

Libby’s defense team will petition for a new trial and, failing that, will appeal the conviction. President Bush could spare us from all that by giving Libby a full pardon now. He has botched this whole affair just like he has botched just about everything since he has been in office. He has a chance to do something right. But he won’t.