Sure, Go Ahead And Confess.

I don’t much care, really, if Scooter Libby is pardoned or not; while he certainly deserves it, there’s no particular good that will come of his actually going to jail. But when people talk about it, I’d really like them to recognize what a pardon means: it’s Bush saying: “Yes, Libby’s a felon. He lied to investigators to block their investigation of a crime. But it was a crime I ordered, and he was working for me — either acting directly under orders, or at least trying to protect the political interests of my administration. I’ve got the power to protect my people from the consequences of the criminal things they do in my service, and I’m exercising it.”

That’s what all of this “he was a fall guy” sympathy for Libby that makes a pardon look reasonable is — it’s not that what he did wasn’t criminal, it’s that he was acting on behalf of his superiors, and it seems unjust that he should suffer for it. And a pardon confirms that: if Libby were acting criminally on his own behalf, there’d be no reason to pardon him. By pardoning him, Bush takes ownership of Libby’s crime. (also at Unfogged.)