{"id":7669,"date":"2006-06-13T10:01:59","date_gmt":"2006-06-13T14:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7669"},"modified":"2006-06-13T10:01:59","modified_gmt":"2006-06-13T14:01:59","slug":"the-flip-side-to-the-gloating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-flip-side-to-the-gloating\/","title":{"rendered":"The flip side to the gloating"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that Karl Rove will apparently avoid<\/a> criminal charges in the Plame scandal, the White House’s allies are having a lot of fun this morning. A little gloating here, some dancing there, a call for a mass apology for Rove here … it’s all pretty understandable, I guess.<\/p>\n

The right was more-than-a-little afraid of this story. After Rove’s fifth<\/i> appearance before a federal grand jury, Bush backers didn’t have to struggle to imagine another criminal indictment and “The Architect’s” unavoidable resignation. If this morning’s reports are accurate, Rove — and his admirers — dodged a bullet.<\/p>\n

But before they gloat too<\/i> much, consider the fact that this scandal has led to a multi-year criminal investigation of the White House. Rove may not be indicted, but Scooter Libby was. As talking points go, arguing, “Only one top White House aide was brought up on criminal charges!” isn’t much of a rallying cry for the president’s supporters.<\/p>\n

For that matter, the number of unanswered questions on this story are pretty high. Why did Rove tell at least two reporters about Plame’s work? Why wasn’t his security clearance pulled? And why did Bush refuse to follow through on his promise to fire anyone involved with the leak?<\/p>\n

What’s likely to be far more annoying than just the “Rove skated” story is the inevitable “Bush comeback” story. Zarqawi’s death, coupled by Rove’s non-indictment, give reporters anxious to write a new, more flattering, narrative about the White House something to work with. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that Karl Rove will apparently avoid criminal charges in the Plame scandal, the White House’s allies are having a lot of fun this morning. A little gloating here, some dancing there, a call for a mass apology for Rove here … it’s all pretty understandable, I guess. The right was more-than-a-little afraid of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}