Obstruction of Justice, Continued

Abramowitz writes that a senior administration official "said there is 'comfort' at the White House that the decision will not hurt him politically despite the Democratic outcry."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "President Bush's decision to commute the sentence of I. Lewis Libby Jr. was the act of a liberated man -- a leader who knows that, with 18 months left in the Oval Office and only a dwindling band of conservatives still behind him, he might as well do what he wants.

"The decision is a sharp departure for Mr. Bush. In determining whether to invoke his powers of clemency, the president typically relies on formal advice from lawyers at the Justice Department.

"But the Libby case, featuring a loyal aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who was the architect and chief defender of the administration's most controversial foreign policy decision, the war in Iraq, was not just any clemency case. It came to symbolize an unpopular war and the administration's penchant for secrecy."

Janet Hook writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Bush's action shows that, with a little more than 18 months remaining in his second term and his influence at its lowest ebb, he is still willing to rely on his signature leadership style -- one that risks polarizing the country to take stands that satisfy his conservative base."

Massimo Calabresi writes for Time: "President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence on Monday will fuel speculation that others at the White House helped coordinate the leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA officer in 2003. But politically the move makes sense...

"Those who suspect the worst about the Administration's role in the Plame case are not likely to become any more motivated than they already were against Bush and the Republicans. On the right, the Republican base, which demanded mercy for Libby, will be placated. Had Bush not acted, they would have turned on him, weakening the last pocket of support he has."

Amy Goldstein writes in The Washington Post: "At a time when his popularity is as low as any president's in modern history, Bush's action . . . defied public opinion. Shortly after Libby was convicted in March, three national public opinion polls found that seven in 10 Americans said they would oppose a pardon of Libby.

"Still, the president appeared to calculate that he would antagonize his conservative base too severely if he did not provide Libby some form of reprieve, according to people close to the White House."

Goldstein reports that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is "expected to move swiftly to conduct hearings on the commutation, congressional sources said."

William Schneider reported on CNN: "It's very clear . . . that this will be horrendously unpopular. . . . Politically there will be direct repercussions. Of course President Bush can't run for re-elections, but there's going to be a lot of anger out there.

"I don't think it's going to be restricted simply to Democrats. Independents and some Republicans are going to be angry, and it's going to feed into the anger at Washington that seems to be poisoning the mood of the country and informing everything happening in the campaign so far. Americans are very resentful over the fact that someone who was convicted of a serious crime, for which many, many other people are in jail right now had his sentence commuted and will not go to jail. That's the important thing: Will not go to jail, because he has friends in high places. That's exactly what enrages people about business in Washington. . . .