Libby guilty verdict has left 'cloud over vice president'

New questions are being raised about Vice President Dick Cheney and his influence in the innermost councils of the Bush administration, following the conviction of his former top aide Lewis Libby for lying to the FBI and a federal grand jury in the CIA leak case. The White House insisted that nothing has changed, maintaining that Cheney, a prime architect of the Iraq War, still had President Bush's full confidence. But few would disagree with the remark of Patrick Fitzgerald, summing up the prosecution's perjury and obstruction of justice case against Libby, that "there is a cloud over the vice president." Cheney was never called to testify, but the evidence laid bare a vice president personally orchestrating the campaign to discredit the former ambassador Joseph Wilson, a fierce critic of the administration's use of pre-war intelligence on Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction. Libby, it became crystal clear, was acting on the orders of his boss in exposing that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Cheney's supporters say he was simply defending administration policy. "There was only one strategy, to convey the nature of the intelligence and the nature of the threat," said Mary Matalin, a former adviser to Cheney. Libby is due to be sentenced on June 5, but that might be delayed by the appeals process. His lawyers have already started to prepare a request for a new trial, while White House officials refused to discuss speculation that Bush might grant a pardon. "We never comment on pardons," said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, adding that the conviction had not diminished Cheney's effectiveness as an adviser. The fact remains that the Mar. 6 verdict has been a thudding blow to a White House already reeling from the chaos in Iraq, the Democratic capture of Congress and the shoddy treatment of wounded soldiers at military hospitals in Washington. Detection this week of a potentially life-threatening thrombosis has rekindled concerns about Cheney's health. The White House even seems to be edging away from his ultra-hawkish foreign policy prescriptions. It has embraced a diplomatic deal over North Korea's nuclear program, and this weekend sits down to discuss the Iraq crisis at the same table as Iran.