Someone on the WELL pointed out a good reason why Bush commuted Libby’s prison sentence but didn’t grant him a full pardon: Libby can now still plead the Fifth in future testimony. If he had a full pardon, he couldn’t.

And another thing: If Bush is opposed to “activist judges” who are allegedly reinterpreting law rather than just following the given guidelines, what is he doing saying that Libby’s sentence is too harsh when it falls smack in the middle of the range of possible sentences for what Libby was convicted for?