It’s beginning to look a lot like Fitzmas, everywhere you go…

April 28, 2006

Remember all of those months that went by in which we heard practically nothing about [tag]Karl Rove[/tag], [tag]Patrick Fitzgerald[/tag], and the [tag]Plame[/tag] scandal? Well, they appear to be over.

MSNBC reported last night that Rove “described his three and a half hour meeting with a grand jury as grueling, and is more worried about being prosecuted than ever.” A Rove lawyer said the presidential adviser described his fifth [tag]grand jury[/tag] appearance as “hell.”

MSNBC’s David Shuster appeared live on Keith Olbermann’s 8pm show this evening and stated that Rove was surprised by the tone of the questions as well as the length of time he was required to testify.

The New York Times added that Fitzgerald is expected to decide “in the next two to three weeks” whether to charge Rove with [tag]perjury[/tag].

With the completion of Mr. Rove’s fifth appearance before the grand jury on Wednesday, Mr. Fitzgerald is now believed to have assembled all of the facts necessary to determine whether to seek an [tag]indict[/tag]ment of Mr. Rove or drop the case.

Lawyers in the case said Mr. Fitzgerald would spend the coming days reviewing the transcript of Mr. Rove’s three hours of testimony on Wednesday and weigh it against his previous statements to the grand jury as well as the testimony of others, including a sworn statement that Mr. Rove’s lawyer gave to the prosecutor earlier this year.

And Bloomberg added that “people familiar with the case” said Fitzgerald “declined to give [Rove] any assurance after his testimony that he won’t be charged.”

The grand jury meets again this morning. Stay tuned.

Oh CB you are such a tease. I just cannot allow myself to buy in until I see Hot Karl in stripes. The obvious question (if Rove is indicted) is, what are the odds that the VP’s Chief of Staff and the Special Counsel to the President acted without the knowledge and approval of their bosses? The suspense is killing me!

Rove, Scooter, Duke, Safavian, Abramoff, Ney? They are still a few players short of fielding an all-star prision softball team. Who will fill out the roster?

  • I take it, then, that Rove’s usual smug expression when testifying didn’t last too long?

    It’s got to be soooo hard on a guy, who’s been so used to using the system to mess with others, to suddenly realize that he’s caught in a trap. A trap of his own making, no less.

    A soft and pudgy guy like Rove is, I hope, warming himself up for Bubba with the big end of a baseball bat.

  • Fitzgerald “declined to give [Rove] any assurance after his testimony that he won’t be charged.”

    Rove actually ASKED?

    What a dumb smuck!

    I’m with MNP, I’ll believe it when I see it. It will be cool if he is indicted, the Republicanites lose the house, and Bush claims in his jail memoirs that it was all because Fitzgerald convicted Rove and distracted him from winning the 2006 midterms. 😉

    One can only dream!

  • Rove’s jeopardy, like that of Tom DeLay, is important for reasons that go far beyond the specifics of their situations. The question we’re facing as a political society is whether or not transgressive behavior ultimately is rewarded (with power) or punished.

    If Rove *doesn’t* go down, he becomes the role model for every aspiring political strategist for 50 years to come. Hard to imagine where that takes the country.

  • “If Rove *doesn’t* go down, he becomes the role model for every aspiring political strategist for 50 years to come.” – dajafi

    Of course, he is just following in the footsteps of the Bush I pardoned officials involved in the Iranian Arms for Hostages deal.

    Ah, the memories!

  • Lance brings up an interesting point about Iran-Contra — and not just because people like Weinberger and North either got off the hook or were actually rewarded for their criminal behavior — which set the table for today’s bad acts.

    Will any bulldog journalist or historian ever learn what role Bush Senior had in Iran-Contra?

  • “Will any bulldog journalist or historian ever learn what role Bush Senior had in Iran-Contra?” – JohnnyB

    Since by then Reagan was already losing his faculties to Altzheimers, I would guess Bush I had about the same relationship to Iran-Contra that Cheney has to the Iraq Debacle.

  • “”OFFICIAL A.” THAT’S A DESIGNATION PROSECUTORS ARE REQUIRED TO GIVE WHEN THEY ARE REVEALING PERJORATIVE INFORMATION ABOUT A PERSON NOT YET CHARGED”

    Plame and Wilson could not be charged because Kerry hired him during his campaign. This meant back off and Fitzgerald, an organized crime prosecuter,-how bad agents at CIA are handled-might have been intimdated by this and decided to skip an investigation.

    Official would be Plame.

  • Empty Wheel over at The Next Hurrah made an excellent point about Rove’s assertion that doing the things he’sbeing investigated for would have been a “suicide mission” which is why he would never have done sucha thing, pointing out that in 2003 Rove had no reason to believe any reporter would ever give him up if there was an investigation, of which there was little likelihood. Rove did it, and did it because he “knew” he couldn’t get caught.

  • Tom Cleaver,
    You’ve hit the nail on the head. What person ever committed a crime thinking he or she’d get caught?!? If that was true, then we’d have no criminals.

    What a lame-ass defense. Rove has definitely jumped the shark if this is really what he’s telling Fitzgerald.

  • I think it is true that they never believed they would be caught. Their own arrogance blinded them. They were so accustomed to manipulating the system and winning all the battles that they sadly underestimated the power of the truth. This is really starting to remind me ot the old Nixon days. They may not have tapes anymore, but they do have e-mails.

  • MNProgressive: It might be a co-ed softball team with the vile Katherine Harris doing some hard time too. That would make me happy even though I still feel physically ill when I think about the 2000 s-election.

  • I feel like a four-year-old looking at wrapped presents under the Christmas tree.a few days before Christmas. “Eager anticipation” barely begins to describe it. Please, please, please let this end up by demonstrating that the actions of the Bush administration are unacceptable.

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