What’s So Funny?

Jittery Bush aides gnawed their nails yesterday as a special prosecutor zeroed in on White House political guru Karl Rove’s role in blowing a CIA agent’s cover.

In the closing hours of the grand jury probe, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald paid a visit yesterday to Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, prompting speculation that a plea bargain could be in the works for the deputy White House chief of staff.

It was the latest of several one-on-one meetings between Fitzgerald and Luskin, the Daily News has learned….

Two weeks ago, at a political event in Texas, Rove brushed aside concerns from anxious pals. “He said he was fine and he said it with gusto,” one of the well-wishers recalled.

A week later, however, Rove seemed down and distracted to some of his White House colleagues…

While White House staffers were tense, Fitzgerald’s team relaxed from their stoic, all-business demeanor. The cheery prosecutors shared an elevator ride with a News reporter and cracked up over a private joke.