Rove, Leopold, etc.

Talk Left has the latest on the Leopold story that Rove has already been indicted, with a pretty plausible theory of a two part indictment, perjury, offer a plea deal, then go back for obstruction. The most interesting statement is "Jason says he confirmed the story with more than 2 sources. He says Knight- Ridder, MSNBC and ABC News now have one source for the story."

I don't want to get too far into the Leopold controversy because it's a sidetrack from the real story which is/would be the indictment of the third most powerful man in the administration. But I thought I'd link this post because it's an exhaustive look at the state of play.

My general sense is that if his story proves to be wrong, which it hasn't yet, Jason Leopold was set up. I believe he has honestly reported what he was told.

Because, let's remember what the Plame investigation is all about, breaking the law retaliating against somebody who wrote stuff the administration didn't like. And what is the administration involved in right now? A Nixonesque effort to stop leaks at any cost.

So, if you want to look at bad history, Jason Leopold isn't the only one. This White House outed a covert agent working on critical WMD issues in Iran to silence a previous critic. (And let's not forget McCain's illegitimate black baby, the swiftboaters, or the bug Rove planted in his own office in the Texas governor's race. Or as a direct parallel, how Dan Rather was burned neutralizing the ANG story. We still don't exactly know how that went down.) Quite frankly, it's Leopold's bad history that would make him a prime candidate for this sort of setup.

That's my sense of it, I have no proof on either side, but in my evaluation of things, the Rove/White House side has alot to gain by Leopold getting burned and he has very little to gain by lying. That's all if the story turns out to be untrue which we don't know yet.

But it's funny just how well this controversy has deflected all conversation away from the guilt of Rove towards Leopold's credibility. It couldn't have turned out any better if Rove had planned it himself. So, let's stop talking about Jason Leopold and return to talking about the fact that the iconic most powerful political figure in the Republican party is facing indictment, trial, and jail time. That should be the story.

Update: Mark Ash at truthout wrote this among other things today supporting the Leopold story, (It's worth a read if you're tracking this.)

We can now report, however, that we have additional, independent sources that refute those denials by Corallo and Luskin. While we had only our own sources to work with in the beginning, additional sources have now come forward and offered corroboration to us.

We have been contacted by at least three reporters from mainstream media - network level organizations - who shared with us off-the-record confirmation and moral support. When we asked why they were not going public with this information, in each case they expressed frustration with superiors who would not allow it.

He also indirectly makes the point that if the indictment is in fact sealed, we may not know about it for a long time.