by LibertyorDeath » Sat Oct 29, 2005 3:08 am
<br>Prosecutors don't reel in trout to catch guppies.<br><br>Scooter clearly told Fitz to "go fish," so that's what the Special Prosecutor did: securing an indictment which effectively ensured that Scooter would never agree to roll on the Vice President--as if he was going to do that, he would have done it before his indictment.<br><br>[It is unthinkable that Scooter and his lawyer would have been so tone-deaf as to play a game of "indictment chicken" with Fitzgerald, planning to cooperate with him just as soon as Fitzgerald showed the necessary sac to go get an indictment; no one who knows anything about Fitzgerald would so brazenly and naively doubt his resolve].<br><br>So what about Rove? Will he collapse like a wet tissue and roll on his betters?<br><br>Fitzgerald isn't sure yet, which is the only reason Rove's not doing the same limousine perp-walk Libby did today.<br><br>So, once again, let's be clear: Fitzgerald could have indicted Rove today.<br><br>He has the evidence, he merely hasn't figured out his best strategy yet. Maybe Rove can make something stick on the President or Vice President; maybe Rove can't give quality but can give, instead, quantity to Fitzgerald: a large volume of mid-level co-conspirators who don't explicitly include, among their numbers, either of the two Big Fish but who, instead, represent simply one side of a regulation-size softball game--enough conspiring rats to really satisfy this Special Prosecutor's thirst for a Big Picture.<br><br>What's unthinkable, however, is that Rove and his lawyer, Luskin, somehow unearthed some information at the eleventh hour which will exonerate the man Stephanie Miller of Air America Radio has now dubbed "Tubby McTreason."<br><br>It just didn't happen, folks.<br><br>If Rove had information to exonerate himself, he would have offered it to Fitzgerald well before now: say, at one (or more) of his four appearances before the grand jury, or at some point during the two years of the leak probe.<br><br>Let's speak bluntly here, and say that any new information Rove proffers to Fitzgerald now--at this point--would only serve to inculpate Rove, solidifying Fitzgerald's belief (and make no mistake, this is his belief) that Rove has been holding out on him.<br><br>So if Rove has dodged a bullet here, it's not an evidentiary issue (as in, a lack thereof), it's a question of a) whether Fitzgerald is in the mood for a cheap pinch, and b) whether Rove still has the goods on somebody who matters.<br><br>Which makes me wonder how Rove--politically, I should think, radioactive at this point--is still working at the White House. Does anyone think Bush is letting Rove work for him while not knowing whether Rove is simultaneously ratting him out to the grand jury? Of course not. In the grown-up world which most of us inhabit, Rove is giving the President daily briefings on every little thing he and his attorney are saying to the grand jury and to Patrick Fitzgerald.<br><br>And how awkward is that?<br><br>Bush interrogating Rove on what Rove told the grand jury about Bush?<br><br>You have to wonder how long it will last.<br><br>You have to wonder, moreover, just how sick Bush's relationship with Rove is.<br><br>Make no mistake (to again use a phrase once so favored by this President): Rove is to Bush as a drug-dealer is to an addict, as a pimp is to a whore, as a blackmailer is to a blackmailee, as a bondsman is to a criminal, as a ruler-wielding nun is to a recalcitrant Catholic schoolgirl.<br><br>The two are not friends.<br><br>Rove is merely the latest and most dire of a series of parasites who've made their home on Bush's hairy ass. Others include Iraq's dissident pathological liar, Chalabi; Tom DeLay; Bill Frist; James Dobson; and The Devil.<br><br>What Fitzgerald wants: conspiracy indictments.<br><br>What he has: no one willing to cross a man (Bush) who could have any witness (admitting some melodrama here) killed, harassed, threatened, or ruined with a single phone call.<br><br>If Bush's cronies could effectively shame a repeatedly-medaled Vietnam war hero before an audience of--oh, about six billion--what couldn't they do to a bureaucratic ink-blotter like John Hannah, or David Wurmser, or anyone who dared to cross this President? Hell, this whole case is about how Team Bush rolls when challenged: does anyone think anyone here is not getting the message?<br><br>More grown-up talk: Scooter didn't "forget" anything. The indictment against him lays out nine separate instances--nine instances--in which he was told about Valerie Plame, all of which preceded the several instances in which he told federal prosecutors and grand jurors he wasn't sure whether he knew (at the point in time he was discussing) who Valerie Plame was.<br><br>Libby went to Yale undergrad. Columbia law school. He's been a practicing criminal attorney. He's one of the sharpest and most savvy men in America.<br><br>Enough said.<br><br>A man like that doesn't walk blindly into an indictment trap. He does it eyes wide open, he does it because he's protecting someone more important than he is--and when you've as much a sense of self-importance as Ol' Scooter has, that's saying something.<br><br>A man like Scooter does something like this because he must do it, else crimes of a more vicious and treasonous nature will be unearthed by his Inquisitor--perhaps crimes committed by him, perhaps those perpetrated by the superiors to which he owes his allegiance and daily bread.<br><br>The only question, now, is whether Tubby McTreason has the same gumption as Scooter, and whether Fitzgerald has enough witnesses to advance his Grand Theory--and make no mistake, like any good prosecutor, he has one--without either Tubby or Scooter.<br><br>We'll soon see.<br><br>Because one more thing is this: in the grown-up world in which Patrick Fitzgerald lives, this investigation ain't over 'til it's over.<br><br>And it ain't over, folks. It ain't over.<br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://sethabramson.blogspot.com/2005/10/time-to-talk-like-grown-ups.html">sethabramson.blogspot.com/2005/10/time-to-talk-like-grown-ups.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
