Plame Gossip - more indictments coming!

My friend Plame gossip friend, Jason, had been quiet for almost a week, so I was beginning to wonder, but today he comes out with a biggie. (thanks to Greyhair for the pointer.) Remember when I said that for Fitzgerald "methodical means slow?"

It may seem as though it's been moving along at a snail's pace, but the second part of the federal investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is nearly complete, with attorneys and government officials who have remained close to the probe saying that a grand jury will likely return an indictment against one or two senior Bush administration officials.....

In lengthy interviews over the weekend and on Monday, they said that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has started to prepare the paperwork to present to the grand jury seeking an indictment against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

But don't cancel your appointments tomorrow because the article also says that indictments probably will not be presented for another month.

I've gotta say that this is a little odd coming off the reports yesterday of cooperation by Rove. What I think I'm getting here is that Rove has not been fully cooperative. Jason notes that Fitzgerald did not believe the whole Viveca Novak debacle that Luskin tried to sell as an explanation for Rove's shifting grand jury testimony.

If history is a guide, I would guess Rove will let Fitzgerald go right to the brink of indictment, and then offer to cooperate some more.

Also, the vague indications in this article of Hadley, or Rove, or both, tells me that Fitzgerald is trying to pit them against each other. You know, the standard cop show tactic of seperating the suspects offering them seperate deals to rat each other out. And, then the addition of the ticking clock leaked through this story. That's big pressure.

Now for the fun part, the speculation. Just speculation, but I would think that if there were equal culpability between them and that if Rove/Hadley were the endpoint of this investigation, there would be far more certainty whether either, none, or both would be charged. If the investigation is completed, wouldn't there be a better sense of where the case stood against both of them?

Now, as a counter argument, Jason does report that the chief FBI investigator Eckenrode has retired, but I don't think that means necessarily that Rove/Hadley is the end. The arrangement of evidence and the collection of testimony could well continue.

I have no real basis beyond a hunch, but sitting here now, this just smells to me like working up the chain. You offer Hadley and Rove deals for full cooperation. Either they both keep their mouths shut and face jailtime, one cracks and rats out the other making the pressure even greater on the second, or they both start singing. In any case, this sounds like leverage.

It's quite clear from the "missing" 250 emails that somebody besides Libby in the VP's office was very directly involved in obstruction of justice, running around from computer to computer, from office to office intentionally deleting emails and other communications. Also consider that this person or persons had to have enough pull(Cheney's backing) and security clearance to travel office to secure office on all the computers or to order/coordinate it among possible participants. This person, I think, is now the endpoint of the investigation.

So, Fitzgerald has issued his final warnings to Rove and Hadley.

Karl, stop cooperating halfway, your game is over. Hadley, you've known you were in the sights for nine months so fess up or go to jail. Tell me everything about the obstruction and conspiracy(Cheney?) or go to jail. And, if I've learned anything watching Karl Rove through all this, he won't go to jail.

The threats have become more direct, the targets far more substantial. It appears we are finally nearing the endgame.

As a funny side note, how does Josh Bolten's future look right now? Just this morning everyone was asking how effective could he be with Rove and Cheney still around? Sure, all of this might leave a mess for him, but he may be about to be the top advisor. How good of a Washington operator is he?

And, let's talk about the midterms again.... (heh, heh, heh...)