GOP candor

Not all Republicans reacted gleefully to the news that Bush commuted Libby's sentence, but did not pardon him.

Vin Weber, a conservative lobbyist and adviser to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said he was puzzled by Bush's deferring a decision on a pardon, given what Weber described as the overwhelming consensus in Republican political circles that Libby should be pardoned.

"We seem to have decided that we are going to prolong this thing as long as we can, which is drag this into the presidential election," he said. "I don't understand why. I don't know what their thinking is. . . . No Republican wants this issue to be alive in the next election."

Bush's decision was an odd one, on the face of it. He was going to face the wrath of the Democratic congress whether he chose to pardon or commute, and the "compromise" he appears to have reached will obviously not please the red meat Republicans who remain loyal to him.

Just a tin-foil hat guess here, but was this -- along with the respectful words about Fitzgerald and "rule of law" -- an effort to head off any further investigations of his administration on this matter?