White House Already on the Defensive Takes Another Hit With Guilty Verdict

NYT

....Deep into his second term, Mr. Bush faces an array of political and policy problems that seem to be growing by the day. His once-powerful standing with the public has been leached away by the war in Iraq. His party, dogged by corruption charges, has lost power on Capitol Hill, leaving him exposed to a Democratic opposition that is now armed with subpoena power and the energy that comes from a good shot at recapturing the White House in 2008. His domestic agenda is stalled, and his foreign policy is constrained.

The conviction on Tuesday of I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and assistant to the president, came in a week when Mr. Bush was already dealing with Congressional hearings into the administration’s handling of health care for members of the military injured in the war and its removal of federal prosecutors from their jobs under circumstances that Democrats suggest could be politically motivated.

Once again, Mr. Bush was put on the defensive about the underlying issue in the case, the administration’s use of intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq. And suddenly the White House was parrying questions about the possibility of a pardon for Mr. Libby.

Current and former officials said in interviews that the trial was primarily a Washington fascination that had left the public confused as the investigation veered from accusations that officials had leaked the name of a confidential C.I.A. operative to rebut a war critic — her husband — to charges that Mr. Libby had lied to officials investigating them.

But several acknowledged that the word “guilty” could greatly change the dynamic....

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Kenneth M. Duberstein, a former chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan in his second term, said: “This is a day consumed by nine G.I.’s killed in Iraq, 100 Iraqis dying, the continuing Walter Reed investigation into the mistreatment of our returning heroes, and the Libby verdict — four out of five counts guilty. No matter how you spin it, this was a bad, bad, bad news day for this White House.”