As Charles Krauthammer aptly put it, our attorney general is “clueless” on the subject of KSM’s trial in New York. The defense counsel Scott Fenstermaker is warming up, explaining that we’ll hear rebuttals to all the “demonization” of his client that has been going on over the past eight years. So what is to be done?

Congress might try to cut off funds or engage in some jurisdictional court-stripping (although that’s usually a prospective remedy to prevent courts from meddling). Or Obama could just change his mind. Yes, why not? It was, he keeps telling us, Holder’s call, after all. And now, as he sees it all play out, why not simply reverse course? Oh, sure he’ll need an excuse, but just as the Bush administration (actually, at Krauthammer’s clever suggestion) dumped the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination over a made-up issue of executive privilege concerning her White House work record, so too there will be plenty of chances to fold up shop if the president is squeamish about simply pulling the plug right now.

The president can blame Greg Graig or Holder, if he must. Obama reversed course on the detainee photos after advice from Justice, so he’s not unaccustomed to the process. Embarrassing? Sure. But if he thinks about what years and years of a show trial will mean, and the impact it will have on his image as commander in chief as the public realizes that this could easily have been avoided, Obama may come to see that a quick dose of embarrassment now is preferable to years of humiliation down the road.