No official news until Friday, however major media is all but saying Rove and Libby will be indicted. Manwhile, Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination, an obvious sign of a collapsing administration. Ordinarily this would be huge news, but Indictment Watch is the bigger story.
And nothing of substance will be accomplished in DC once the firestorm of indictments hit.
Bush is, of course, trying to deflect attention from the coming indictments.
The prosecutor hasn’t announced any indictments, but President Bush’s aides and their allies in Congress are working on strategies to counter the blow if White House officials are accused of crimes.
The basic plan is familiar to anyone who has watched earlier presidents contend with scandal: Keep the problem at arm’s length, let allies outside the White House do the talking, and try to change the subject to something — anything — else.
This strategy didn’t work for Nixon and it won’t work for Bush.
Given that the Republicans control the entire government and have no effective opposition from the Democrats, perhaps the prospect of “nothing of substance” being accomplished in DC is not an altogether bad thing….
Indeed.
Well, tomorrow is Indictment Friday. We shall see.
John Dean remains the only commentator who doesn’t think there will be indictments.