A little idle speculation: Bush and his fellow thugs in 2002 were busy spinning multiple lies to justify invading Iraq (obviously, to me, for the benefit of Big Oil). Wilson's report, obviously to all, was a significant problem, because if one lie can be exposed, perhaps all of them would be. Thus, the necessity of striking back at Wilson in order to deter other would-be truthtellers. Originally the plan was to put Valerie Plame's identity into the public domain through Judith Miller, a cooperative stooge in spreading the Bush lies throughout the leadup to war. Because the gang of murderers trusted Miller, they let her know too much, i.e., not only about the lies for war, but about their intent to "out" Plame.
However, either Miller had an attack of conscience, or her editors refused to go with the story, and it was necessary to contrive methods of leaking it to others in seeming innocence (Cooper). But their secret was safe with Miller, they believed. That is, until somebody (I think Fleisher) did the canary act before the grand jury and told them all about the attempt to leak through Miller. The subpoena to Miller followed.
Miller, naturally afraid of going to prison, needed to be assured. What better assurance than this: that if she sucks it up and does a few months in minimum security, Bush will protect her from the threat of a criminal contempt charge through a presidential pardon, and when the dust settles, either she will be otherwise rewarded (a high level appointment?) or, conversely, threats against her would not be fulfilled. Bush and his henchmen can survive (why not? he can't run again) the political scandal of having "outed" Plame, as Rove admitted, but they could not survive an indictment for conspiring to lie to Congress and send the nation to war needlessly. Without Miller's testimony to back up Fleisher, or whomever, such an indictment might not be feasible.
If this theory is true, the following would also be true:
- The White House would be in "hunker down" mode, willing to let their credibility and political capital disappear in order to avoid indictment not only of Rove but of many major players, probably Cheney and possibly Bush himself, and would make their minimum criterion for service in the WH that one not have been convicted of a crime (knowing that avoiding conviction would be the best outcome for them they could hope for in this scandal).
- A Federal judge, knowing what the thrust of Miller's testimony would be, would refer to the "plot against Wilson" and would call the matter under investigation a very serious crime, none of which is obvious from Coooper's testimony.
- Rove would free Cooper from his pledge, which as I pointed out may not establish criminal culpability, but would not free Miller from her pledge.
Bush would not lose, and would probably gain, political capital for pardoning Miller; I suspect all editorial boards and most of people of this country would applaud protecting a brave woman from further jeopardy after she has couragesouly "done her time" for principle. And, of course, he gains her silence forever.
Whaddaya think?