White House spokesliar Tony Fratto was asked about Bush's upcoming pardons today and he specifically mentioned Bush's "last day as President," namely 1/20/09.

FRATTO: We do expect additional — additional clemency requests. The president has been considering them. And, hopefully, soon we’ll have something for you on that.

I can’t tell you that — when exactly the next one will come — the next batch will come and whether there will be more after that. I think the president has maintained his authority to do that until — until his last day as president, so we’re not going to — I don’t think we’ll take that away from him.

Clearly Bush will issue controversial pardons on his last day, and the White House is preparing for the explosion of public outrage that will follow. Watch:

Update 1: It's interesting to note that when Fratto was asked about pardons, he specifically changed the question to clemency requests. Why is this significant?

Clemency requests are routine. Every President (and Governor) gets them by the bucketload. They are handled by professional legal staff following specific guidelines. No one gets excited about clemency requests.

But other than Scooter Libby, Bush's top aides haven't submitted clemency requests for the simple reason that such requests aren't even considered prior to criminal conviction.

Pardons for Bush, Cheney, and other top officials would not go through the normal clemency system. Was Fratto trying to avoid any discussion of such highly-controversial pardons by shifting the question to clemency requests?