It's gratifying to get through this phase of the Plame affair without any speed bumps. Libby will face responsibility for his egregious actions in exposing a United States intelligence official for reasons best described as "self-interest". Fitzgerald will now lean on Libby during the sentencing process to come clean and redeem his name. The infamy of a presidential pardon from the worst president in American history doesn't seem very appetizing.
Meanwhile, Dick Cheney suddenly has a blood clot in his leg and will likely soon step down. Nothing could be more convenient, after the suspicous incident in Afghanistan to generate sympathy for the old fart. Some would call me an uncivil and uncouth liberal extremist for calling Cheney a "fart", but that's what he smells like, and I'm standing by it (not behind it). Obviously, Cheney is ruined, as it is all but known now that all the lies Bush told about Libby not being involved, and his administration not being involved, in the Plame outing is a blatant and damning lie.
I don't really have much more to say at this time other than sketching out some broad guidelines. Fitzgerald likes to flip people before sentencing and Cheney/Bush administration knows it. The only way to save the administration at this point from public tarring and feathering, given the current negative situation and environment irrespective of this Libby verdict and Plame scandal, is for Cheney to go and a bold move made by Bush to redefine his presidency, if only to attempt to save the Republican Party from imminent political and electoral meltdown.
Of course, Cheney and Bush are trying to generate as much sympathy for the old fart as possible right now, since he may be on trial next and this reflects back on the administration. So you have the puzzling and suspicious "assassination attempt" on Cheney in Afghanistan, conveniently a week before a verdict leaning towards Fitzgerald and the prosecution (the "government" against the government), and now you have before the verdict is released this morning that Cheney may have to step down because of a possible blood clot in his leg, which even more puzzlingly is described by officials as not unexpected when you put an old man with circulation problems on a heavy flight schedule stretching out over several days.
Now, you have to wonder here, if it's to be expected that a man in Cheney's health condition would not improbably develop blood clots in his leg enduring a particular flight schedule, why would they set such a schedule, and why just at this moment when the Libby verdict is coming down?