● An analysis piece in the New York Times acknowledges the pragmatism, for George Bush at least, of the decision to commute "Scooter" Libby's sentence: "[It] 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."
● Ex-Bush supporter Andrew Sullivan is furious. "It is hard to think of an action more contemptuous of the rule of law," he <a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/07/brooks-on-libby.html"
">writes. "Except for so many decisions made by this lawless president, acting as a monarch ... what more do we need to know? These people think they are above the law."
● Continuing Bush believer Glenn Reynolds, however, forecasts good times ahead. He predicts that the US president will "rise in the polls as estranged conservatives warm to him in light of lefty indignation".
● Joe Klein is indignant in the Swampland blog on Time. He thinks Mr Libby should be "emptying bedpans at Walter Reed" (the US military hospital, subject of a recent scandal over patient care>). Bush supporters in the comments respond with claims of "a good couple of weeks to be a conservative".
● And don't forget the Clinton factor. TPMCafe asks its readers to "join us in the tracking the absurd rightwing 'but Clinton pardoned' defence". That's the one that centres on the former president's pardon of the fugitive Marc Rich on his last day in office; the response, set out in the post, is that Republicans impeached Mr Clinton for perjury but "when one of Bush's lackeys does it, it is to be minimised and forgiven".
● If you are struggling to remember what the "Scooter" Libby case was about, the New Yorker's Nicholas Lemann wrote a piece earlier this year, putting it in its wider context. But be warned, it is complex. "It's a good thing that you're unlikely to be approached by a small, inquisitive child who wants an explanation of the trial of Lewis (Scooter) Libby," Lemann writes. "Because what would you say?"
