A dark cloud for the Dark Lord?

John Dean on the push by Fred Thompson and other rightwing Republicans for a pardon for Scooter Libby: The Bush Administration's Dilemma Regarding a Possible Libby Pardon - And How Outsiders Such as Fred Thompson Appear to Be Working on a Solution Findlaw.com 06/01/07.

Next Tuesday, June 5, the judge is expected to make a decision on whether to send Scooter to jail immediately or let him out on bail while he appeals his conviction.

Dean points out that in the Watergate trials "the March 1, 1974 indictment of Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Chuck Colson (who pled guilty, rather than risk a trial) charged each of them with a conspiracy to obstruct justice by offering to provide clemency to those involved in the Watergate break-in." Dean:

If Libby had been acting on his own behalf, a pardon would present no problem; Bush and Cheney could feel it was the humanitarian thing to do, given his long service to the government. However, no one I know believes Libby was acting simply for himself, nor does the evidence suggest it.

Dean observes that if Scooter was covering for Dark Lord Cheney, it would be obstruction of justice for Cheney to request Bush to pardon his boy Scooter:

No wonder then, that Special Counsel Fitzgerald remarked during the Libby trial that there was "a cloud" over the Vice President.

Come Tuesday, that cloud could get much darker for Cheney.

Tags: dick cheney, john dean, scooter libby