Will Libby end up as collateral damage?

Things appear to be coming to a head between the Congress and Bush administration, which may not be good news for Scooter Libby.

Politico reports:

The Senate Judiciary Committee authorized its chairman on Thursday to issue subpoenas to the Justice Department and the Executive Office of the President for documents authorizing the administration's warrantless surveillance program.

It's hard for the average citizen to gage this program effectively since we haven't been told the full scope nor all the reasons (threats) that prompted its creation, nor will we ever. That leaves it wide open to demagoguery, of which the usual suspects have exploited rather briskly. But that's not the entire point of this post.

The reason Libby might suffer can be found in Waxman's publicizing of the National Archives/Cheney brouhaha announced yesterday. His formal letter to OVP repeatedly dropped Libby's name while snarkily reminding the Veep of his office's "terrible" track record with regards to securing national secrets. That's a real hoot coming from anyone in Congress, especially considering the Archives' own track record on protecting national secrets, but it sells papers and generates hits. I must admit to scratching my own conservative head on this one.

Meanwhile, Libby is running short of time. If his appeal to remain free on bond is denied he'll be heading to the nearest pokey within weeks. If the Waxman can keep these stories boiling in the press (throw in the kitchen sink) any highly publicized pardon or commutation would be rendered politically toxic with possible collateral damage to the Republican presidential candidates. Most are already on record berating the Plame investigation as a political witch hunt, with Fred Dalton Thompson leading the pack. Appearances quite often trump facts.

The best hope for team Bush/Libby is a favorable appeal ruling, which would temporarily knock the posse off the trail. Waxman and crew have painted themselves as champions of law, order and the Constitution so they could hardly risk impugning a federal judicial ruling without appearing as the political hacks they really are.

MORE 6/22/07

From the White House press briefing today:

Q Dana, when you make requests to the OVP about this, could you please specify that the big, large, question is, why no problem in 2001, 2002, and it starts in 2003? Does it have to do with the war, does it have to do with Scooter Libby, does this have to do with what? Why then?

MS. PERINO: I will check into it. I don't know when -- I don't know why the change, and I'll see if there was any different interpretation --

Hey, it's a good question. We'll see if it gets answered, but breath holding is not recommended. She kept reminding them that Executive Orders are controlled by the president since after all, he does create them, and he excluded the OVP from this one as to reporting. But once again this leaves a lot to the imagination.