UPDATE: CBS NEWS has confirmed that Fitzgerald "has informed targets of the investigation of his intentions" - thus we know indictments are definitely coming.
The good news about the fact that there is still no public announcement of indictments is that the White House alpha males are jumping out of their wound-up-tight collective white skins.
Or, as the WaPo terms it:
The White House is "on edge."
"Everybody just wants this week over."
"[O]fficials are bracing for the kind of political tsunami that swamped Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan in their second terms and could change this presidency's course."
Reading these words gives me a warm and happy glow. No wonder we call it Fitzmas.
By "change this presidency's course," I think they mean that the alpha males in the White House are about to become seriously impotent. According to feminist witch folklore, if you want to drain some of the murderous testosterone out of alpha males, you feed them black licorice and red mints. Or, you could try the white man's way and indict them.
Raw Story reports that Fitzgerald has asked the grand jury to indict Libby and Rove "on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice." Others, such as Talkleft and the conservative Redstate.org speculate that Rove will not be indicted. The blogger at Redstate is obviously in denial.
Until all hope is dashed, I'm going with the Raw Story version. Raw Story has a good track record and has been out front with a number of Plamegate scoops. Also, the RS version permits me to continue to:
Visualize Rove in leg shackles.
Raw Story cites "lawyers close to the investigation" and adds that Libby may also be indicted for the actual leak. Since Fitzgerald sent FBI agents to ask Wilson's neighbors if they knew Valerie Plame was with the CIA before Novak outed her - and since the neighbors said they had no idea - the prosecutor may well be pursuing an indictment for the actual leak.
Raw Story also says that dirty deal meister Rove was offered a deal.
Fitzgerald has also asked the jury to indict Libby on a second charge: knowingly outing a covert operative, the lawyers said. They said the prosecutor believes that Libby violated a 1982 law that made it illegal to unmask an undercover CIA agent.
Two other officials, who are not employees in the White House, are also expected to face indictments, the lawyers said.
The grand jury had not yet decided on whether to make indictments at the time this article was published. It appears more likely that the jury would hand down indictments of perjury and obstruction than a charge that Plame was outed illegally.
Those close to the investigation said Rove was offered a deal Tuesday to plead guilty to perjury for a reduced charge. Rove’s lawyer was told that Fitzgerald would drop an obstruction of justice charge if his client agreed not to contest allegations of perjury, they said.
Rove declined to plead guilty to the reduced charge, the sources said, indicating through his attorney Robert Luskin that he intended to fight the charges. A call placed to Luskin was not returned.
Richard Sale, longtime Intelligence Correspondent for UPI, says Fitzgerald plans to take the investigation to a higher level and has thus asked the judge for a brand new grand jury.
If that happens, "political tsunami" could well be an understatement. It's Fitzmas season now, but come next year, we could very well be in impeachment season. I can think of at least 2,000 reasons to impeach the pResident.
Plamegate Politics CIA leak Valerie Plame Fitzgerald Karl Rove Rovegate Treasongate Libby Rove Bush Cheney Turdblossom Indictment Impeach Bush
