FITZMAS: NOT WITH A BANG, BUT WITH A WHIMPER. Bush spares Libby from Prison.

My prediction: Bush will rise in the polls as estranged conservatives warm to him in light of lefty indignation.

UPDATE: Big roundup at Hot Air.

And Orin Kerr comments: “I find Bush’s action very troubling because of the obvious special treatment Libby received. President Bush has set a remarkable record in the last 6+ years for essentially never exercising his powers to commute sentences or pardon those in jail. His handful of pardons have been almost all symbolic gestures involving cases decades old, sometimes for people who are long dead. Come to think of it, I don’t know if Bush has ever actually used his powers to get one single person out of jail even one day early. If there are such cases, they are certainly few and far between. So Libby’s treatment was very special indeed.”

Kinda like the veto — when you use it so rarely, every application seems iffy.