When the National Review starts speculating about the immanent indictment of Karl Rove you know things are getting serious. Are they laying the groundwork for their counterspin?
Byron York writes:
Well, no duh. But there is reason for the rumors.
And everyone knows that Karl Rove initially neglected to tell either the FBI or Fitzgerald about his conversations with Matt Cooper.
If Rove were to be indicted — and for all anyone on the outside knows, there might be someone else in Fitzgerald’s sights — most people knowledgeable about the case believe charges would stem from the presidential adviser’s testimony about his brief July 11, 2003, conversation with Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper.
Rove’s strategic forgetfulness obstructed Fitz’s investigation but the National Review really doesn’t think that is a big deal. Remember when they let Clinton off the hook because he was never found guilty of violating Paula Jones’s civil rights? Well, they are nothing if not logically consistent.
Rove’s supporters believe it would be a weak case, a good deal weaker than the perjury and obstruction case Fitzgerald has made against Libby, which itself was somewhat undermined when it turned out that there was at least one significant part of that story — Libby’s conversations with the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward — that Fitzgerald didn’t know about at the time he indicted Libby. Still, it’s possible Fitzgerald will forge ahead, in part because his much-publicized, two-year investigation has so far produced relatively meager results. After intense probing, and working with virtually unlimited power and discretion, the hard-charging prosecutor has succeeded in indicting one person, Libby, although not for an underlying offense, and disrupting or marring the careers of journalists Judith Miller, Cooper, Woodward, and, most recently, Time’s Viveca Novak. Some Fitzgerald watchers find it difficult to believe that he will close up shop and go home with a record like that.
Poor Rove. It’s unlikely that Fitz will overlook his multiple false statements, obstructions, and instances of outright perjury. He might even put poor Rove in jail. And to think that all Clinton got was an impeachment.