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So, Lewis "Scooter" Libby wants a presidential pardon.

Libby, who was Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for lying and obstructing the investigation of the Bush administration's actions leading up to the Iraq invasion.

Part of me hopes he gets a pardon. Why would I support special treatment for a guy who ruined careers, helped send us to war on bad information and lied in court? If President Bush pardons Libby, it will be a gift to everyone who believes this White House has completely lost its moral compass, and voters will surely take note in next year's election.

But tempting as a pardon sounds for ensuring that the Congress and White House are purged of any Bush loyalists, it would be wrong. Presidential pardons aren't supposed to be for political operatives who cover for the president or senior White House officials.

The sad part is that poor Scooter appears to be the fall guy for the men many believe are the real culprits: Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. Cheney's reaction to the recent guilty verdict was to say he was "saddened for Scooter and his family." I bet the family was saddened at the prospect that Scooter took the bullet for Cheney and Rove.

Many people believe when Rove and Cheney wanted to attack former Ambassador Joe Wilson for questioning some of the president's statements and the intelligence on which the Iraq War was based. In retaliation, Rove leaked the name of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, to Robert Novak, who wrote an op-ed on July 6, 2003, outing Plame as a CIA operative.

Libby became the target of the investigation when it became clear that the White House was not going to let Rove or Cheney hang for the leak. Sounds like a James Michener novel gone bad.

Under this scenario, Rove's and Cheney's tactics to silence war critics like Wilson apparently had no limit. They were even willing to put an American secret agent's life at risk to protect the president's misguided Iraqi policy. That should scare even hard-core conservatives about the dangers of letting politics drive our national security.

Reminiscent of the hearings on U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Libby during more than 14 days of testimony claimed he simply didn't remember who said what to whom and how the leak got to reporters. Of course, several credible reporters, including NBC's Tim Russert, were crystal clear about Libby's role. In the end, the jury didn't buy that Libby was overworked and therefore had a bad memory.

But now it's payback time. In what I'm sure is not the first or last backroom deal conducted in the Bush White House, it looks like Scooter may get a presidential pardon.

Democratic leaders have asked the President not to pardon Libby. Secretly, I think many of them are hoping he does. A pardon will likely be worth several seats in the House and Senate, not to mention a great commercial or two in the presidential general election.

Whether Scooter serves a day or a year in prison, the damage to the Bush administration has been done. The question for Bush is: Does he want to pour more fuel on the fire by pardoning a guy believed to be part of a team, led by Cheney and Rove, that would stop at nothing to keep the American people in the dark about the baseless invasion and occupation of Iraq?