Quo Vadis Dick Cheney?

The big question following the Scooter Libby trial is not whether President Bush will pardon him (of course he will), but whether the (four) guilty verdicts against the veep's chief of staff as well as his latest medical boo-boo (a blood clot) will provide the opening that the prez needs to show the biggest drag on the presidency (beyond himself) the door.

My mind screams "No way, Jose" and Special Proecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has made it clear that he's not going after Dick Cheney. But others are not so sure.

Herewith a sampling of Cheney-centric reaction to the verdicts.

From Mark Daniels:

"Libby was, by all accounts, Dick Cheney's alter ego. There will thus be many questions asked about any association the Vice President may have had with Libby's crimes. A version of Howard Baker's questions during the Watergate hearings, posed about Nixon, will be foremost among them:

"What did the Vice President know? When did he know it?

"The Bush Administration, trying to assert its leadership on Iraq, the war on terrorists, and a number of domestic initiatives, may decide that they can't afford a drawn-out defense of the Vice President. Cheney, a loyal soldier, may also be able to use his new health issues as a convenient (and legitimate) reason for stepping down. His resignation would give Bush Administration critics one less thing to complain about. And the right replacement nominated by Mr. Bush could earn him points and goodwill."

Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish, noting Daniels' take, then jumps in:

"An alternative strategy would be to pardon Libby soon, as the National Review is proposing. But purely from a political standpoint, such a pardon would surely ignite a massive protest, turn this story into a much bigger one, and make many more Americans curious about why their own vice-president was more interested in tackling a domestic critic in the summer of 2003 than fighting the Iraq insurgency. The risk in not pardoning Libby, of course, is that he may begin to talk. Uh-oh. The aspens could be turning. And their roots are all connected."

From Sheryl Gay Stolberg in The New York Times:

"In legal terms, the jury has spoken in the Libby case. In political terms, Dick Cheney is still awaiting a judgment. . . .

"Mr. Cheney is arguably the most powerful vice president in American history, and perhaps the most secretive. The trial painted a portrait of a man immersed in the kind of political pushback that is common to all White Houses, yet often presumed to be the province of low-level political operatives, not the vice president of the United States."

From The Guardian:

"The case laid bare the inner workings of a presidency under siege and the secretive world of Vice President Dick Cheney. . . .

The verdict 'does great damage to the Bush administration,'’ said Paul C. Light, professor of public service at New York University. 'It undermines the president’s pledge of ethical conduct. But the most serious consequence is that it will raise questions about Cheney’s durability in office. It may be time for Cheney to submit his resignation."

"But don’t count on it. Bush in the past has repeatedly come to the defense of his vice president."

From Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice:

"If there’s a big loser in this, it appears to be Cheney, who (unless his new illnesses eventually cause him to step down) now faces two years of constant and increased skepticism, his name being brought up at Congressional hearings, and becoming a 'high concept' symbol of the administration’s ruthlessness in going after those with whom it disagrees."