Newsday gives us this nice little bit of information:

Now that top White House aide Karl Rove is off the hook in the CIA leak probe, President George W. Bush must weigh whether to pardon former vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the only one indicted in the three-year investigation.

Speculation about a pardon began in late October, soon after Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald unsealed the perjury indictment of Libby, and it continued last week after Fitzgerald chose not to charge Rove.

“I think ultimately, of course, there are going to be pardons,” said Joseph diGenova, a former prosecutor and an old Washington hand who shares that view with many pundits.

“These are the kinds of cases in which historically presidents have given pardons,” said the veteran Republican attorney.

In other words, lying under oath is serious enough for impeachment but not serious enough for Scooter to stand trial. Of course Bush will most likely issue a pardon before the trial hits because the trial is expected to produce some very interesting and damming insight into the White House during the lead up to the Iraq war.

Presidential pardons are something I never liked. They make way for greater abuse of power and the reasons people end up getting pardoned are usually not worth it. A pardon should be reserved for people wrongly convicted and then it should be a panel that the pardon can be recommended to that ultimately decides if the pardon is granted or not.

One person in charge of pardoning criminals not only undermines our justice system but the balance of powers our government so deeply depends on. Of course Bush feels there should be no balance of power and the President should be in charge of everything.