Tempest in a teacup

The commutation of Scooter Libby's 30-month jail sentence by President Bush is no big deal, as Neil Boortz reminds his radio audience, for several reasons: First, Bush did not give Libby a full pardon, and the opposition to what he did is frequently hypocritical. Second, the Libby prosecution was politically motivated in the first place. Third, Bush is not a pardon-happy president with a history of doing obvious favors for friends through the Oval Office (Bill Clinton, by contrast, issued 36 commutations and 140 pardons on his last day in office. That's about thirty percent of his total. Interestingly, some of the most controversial of the Clinton pardons were endorsed by Republicans like Lewis "Scooter" Libby).

You can find a nice non-partisan primer on presidential pardons here.