Friday, October 28, 2005

More Dark Days for the White House

From the sound of the latest reports, the White House is not going to be emerging from these dark days for quite a while.

The Times reports that Libby will likely be indicted today.

The paper says Karl Rove will not be indicted today, but he will remain under investigation.

The AP reports: "Fitzgerald signaled Thursday he might keep Rove under continuing investigation, sparing him from immediate charges, the person said, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the grand jury probe."

From the WSJ (sub only): "Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser and deputy White House chief of staff, was informed yesterday evening that he may not be charged today but remains in legal jeopardy, according to a person briefed on the matter. . . Mr. Fitzgerald appeared still to be pondering whether to charge Mr. Rove and has notified the political strategist that he remains under investigation."

The WaPo: "At the White House, aides scrambled to put the finishing touches on a political strategy to respond to the fallout from any criminal charges, including the likelihood of staff changes. A Republican consultant with close White House ties said Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. had canceled at least two trips in the past week and had met with Bush over the weekend to focus on how to react to the grand jury's decisions. . . 'These will be very, very dark days for the White House,' the consultant quoted Card as saying."

If we have at least one indictment and a continuing investigation, we have a White House under seige.

Bush may well rue the day he wished for four more years.

Hat tip to Josh Marshall