Is Rove going to skate on Plame treason?

[rfranklin]

Is Rove off the hook or just being brazenly criminal (Republican)?

Rove tells Republicans to run on Bush's record
Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:00 PM ET

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House political adviser Karl Rove on Friday said Democratic critics of the Iraq war were wrong and Republicans should highlight the issue in November's congressional elections.

Most polls show majorities of Americans have lost confidence in President George W. Bush's handling of the war. But Rove, still under the threat of indictment in a CIA-leak probe, said Republicans should emphasize Bush's record on security, the economy and the courts during the November campaign.

(snip)

Rove made no mention of his own legal jeopardy. The leak probe led late last year to the indictment and resignation of his White House colleague, Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman told the meeting that "if Republicans are guilty of illegal or inappropriate behavior, then they should pay the price and they should suffer the consequences." Continued ...
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-01-20T220043Z_01_N20293953_RTRUKOC_0_US-REPUBLICANS.xml

[bahrbearian]

1. He knows that Libby will be pardoned, and Libby knows this too.

[robbedvoter]

2. lemme draw you a picture

[gratuitous]

10. And the worst thing about Rall's great cartoon

Is that the person on the left is the pessimist, the person on the right is the optimist.

[LadyMorgain]

3. Rove off the hook

I truly believe that he will SOMEDAY be indicted. But, I think it willbe after Bush leaves office. Bush and Vader CHeny still have to much pull in the legal wrangling that goes on in DC. I thought that Fitzgerald would do the right hing, but I just don't see it happeneing anytime soon.
And yes, Rove is still directing the White HOuse, or how I refer to it...The Evil House, and will continue to control things up there until someone puts an absolutely STOP to him. He is a evil genius in the political world unlike any ever there before him.

[CabalPowered]

4. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Loge23]

5. Power structure, IMO

Cheney directs policy.
Rove directs strategy.
The chimp is the PR front.

[H2O Man]

7. I think that there

is a 50-50 chance he will accept the plea deal that his attorney has been discussing with Fitzgerald in the past three weeks.

[Missy Vixen]

9. I don't think he will

H20 Man, I enjoy your postings. I'd like to politely disagree.

I think the plea bargain contains non-negotiable prison time. He will not accept. There was a fresh salvo yesterday from Libby's attorneys as well; the two of them think they can outsmart Patrick Fitzgerald. I realize I'm biased, but I think he hasn't even yet begun to fight.

Julie
president for life of the PFEB

[H2O Man]

12. Libby's camp

is trying to create two areas of "extreme tension." One is with reporters -- hard to believe Libby has a chip on his shoulder there, eh? The second is with the administration. He wants to put the White House in a tough place.

Libby came close to accepting the deal. You may very well be right. My thinking is based on the difference in personality types: Libby fancies himself a real James Bond figure (I'm not kidding; what is it with short guys?); Rove is a coward.

[Missy Vixen]

14. They're both going to get burned in the end

>Libby fancies himself a real James Bond figure (I'm not kidding; what is it with short guys?); Rove is a coward.<

Our guy does not tolerate other lawyers that lie to him. Libby holds a law degree. IMHO, I'm thinking that Libby is an extra special project, and I think his attorney is in trouble, too. Interestingly, I think Scooter's going to get thrown under the bus fairly quickly in an attempt to shield Rove, Cheney, and *. The latest discovery filing analysis is really interesting. They have no defense, they're just throwing mud against the wall and hoping it sticks (and burying the special counsel's office in a blizzard of paperwork.) You're right, Rove's a coward and a bully. The best way to fight back against a bully is to give them a taste of their own medicine. He is nothing without his eroding power base. Those people who hang on his words now will flee when they realize he's irretrievably compromised.

They're rats in a coffee can now, and the water's only simmering. Wait till it gets turned up to "boiling". They won't realize they're done till much too late. They underestimate the whole thing, including the man prosecuting this case.

Julie

[newyawker99]

8. Hi LadyMorgain!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ThomWV]

6. The Later In The 2006 Election Cycle The Better!

Let it break loose (indictment) sometime around July or August and that would be just fine with me.

[BlueIris]

11. Damnit. I don't know.

It's hard for me to believe my Fitzy would let Rove off the hook, since for a while, I kept hearing that Fitz didn't need him to get the Vice President, as Fitz already had the Vice President. By the...ew. So to hear there's a plea possibility in the works in not good for my hope for many, major players getting idicted. I just hope that if he gets off, it was for a good reason.

[Missy Vixen]

13. I don't know if it's all bad

>plea possibility in the works in not good for my hope for many, major players getting idicted.<

After a lot of reading (and the analysis of the good ladies at firedoglake,) here's what I have discovered. Patrick Fitzgerald, throughout his career, has gone after those lower on the totem pole who've committed crimes in order to get them to flip and inform on others. If he's already got information on the VP, that's gooood, but more information is better. Our attorney once told me that there's a "hole" in every case. Any case against Cheney or higher would have to be absolutely airtight, because the entire power of the executive branch would come down on the prosecution, and there can be NO wiggle room. Let's hope that Rove and Libby solidify that case. Evidently, (if I remember correctly,) Libby would not take the plea bargain, either, because of mandatory jail time that was non-negotiable.

Rove has not been cleared by the special counsel's office. If there was no "there" there, he would have been. I think he's roasting on a very slow spit. You know what happens when something's cooked very, very slowly -- it tastes all the sweeter. ;-)

Julie

[leftofthedial]

15. all of them will skate

that's what dictators do after a coup

they either are taken out by a counter-coup or they skate