I ran across an article in the Hill blog that raised the same question, I initially scoffed at the idea, until I did some research.
In it, Brent Budowsky asserts that:
Before leaving office George W. Bush will issue a mass pardon, the largest collection of presidential pardons in American history. Bush will pardon himself, Vice President Cheney, and a long list of officials involved in torture, eavesdropping, destruction of evidence, the CIA leak case and a range of potential crimes.
Can he do this? It is legal and is there a precedent?
Apparently so, according to Factcheck.org:
Ford granted the blanket pardon to former president Nixon on Sept. 8, 1974, a month after Nixon had resigned from office in the wake of the Watergate scandal
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So by issuing the blanket pardon, Ford:
Ended any possibility of Nixon being prosecuted criminally. It covered more than obstruction of justice, however. It excused Nixon for "all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in" during the period from January 20, 1969, through August 9, 1974. In short, Ford's pardon covered any crimes Nixon may have committed between the time he was sworn in for his first term and the day he resigned.
full text of the pardon can be seen at the Web site of the Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum..
The move of course propelled Carter to victory in 1976, but will Bush prior to leaving office later this year, issue a similar blanket pardon? We’ve already seen it with Scooter Libby, but Bush may extend the privilege to Rove and all members of his administration thereby preventing any possible investigation of wrongdoing. Congress and the legal punditry will cry foul, and the new administration if not careful could be marred in an endless pith of executive priviledge and abuse of power cases that could take years to unravel. Abuse of the pardon process could force congress to revisit passing a law that would limit the president’s ability to grant them. It was briefly brought up against Bill Clinton in 1999 with the Marc Rich incident, but the GOP thought the better of it.