All this tells you a lot about how things are done in Washington. The criminal enterprise that Wilson tried to expose is left well alone, while his wife made redundant, and he is repeatedly attacked and slandered by stampeding hordes of buffoons. Libby goes down because he was caught telling fibs to protect his masters, but no one cares who he was protecting or why, and no one will try to find out. The Iraq war will, on some estimates, cost between $1 trillion and $2 trillion by the time it's finished. It looks as if the imperial strategy is failing badly and is causing some alarm in segments of the American ruling class. However, no one in the current administration will suffer serious or permanent damage as things presently stand - the costs of empire are largely externalised to its victims - and quite a lot of people close to the administration have done rather well out of the venture. The Democrats are still largely convinced of the legitimacy of the effort, are determined to support it more intensely and may even try to take it further afield. They will appreciate this conviction because it hurts the Republicans, as it should. But they would no more seek further indictments or probe further into the issues than they would participate in a daisy-chain of arse-kicking, since one runs the risk of establishing troublesome precedents. So it's all coming down on Lewis Libby. According to Libby, he got the name 'Scooter' because his Daddy noticed how fast he could move across his little crib when he was a baby. He has a new crib to scoot around in for a few years.

What about a Bush Pardon ala Clinton and Bush I on the way out the door?

Can libby stay out of jail long enough?  

You responded by saying that the charge of leaking classified information had neither been brought nor determined in the verdict.

The fact no one was charged with violation of the IIPA doesn't mean Plame's identity wasn't classified, since the IIPA requires proof beyond the mere classification of the outed agent's identity (i.e., covert status, as defined by the statute).

In fact, the indictment states that Plame's identity was classified (as did Fitz during his post-indictment and post-verdict news conferences), and there's no question the fact that Rove and Cheney were implicated as leakers during the trial was established (and never rebutted). Admittedly, the jury didn't have to weigh in on whether or not Plame's identity was classified, but that's irrelevant insofar as taking administrative action against the leakers, isn't it?

Something is rotten in the heart of Washington; and it lies in the vice-president's office. The salience of this case is obvious. What it is really about - what it has always been about - is whether this administration deliberately misled the American people about WMD intelligence before the war.