Canary Clears His Throat

Whaddya want ta know, I'll tells ya everything!

Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th-hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer's leaked identity but have warned they cannot guarantee he won't be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.

The U.S. attorney's manual requires prosecutors not to bring witnesses before a grand jury if there is a possibility of future criminal charges unless they are notified in advance that their grand jury testimony can be used against them in a later indictment.

Rove has already made at least three grand jury appearances and his return at this late stage in the investigation is unusual.

The prosecutor did not give Rove similar warnings before his earlier grand jury appearances.

Rove offered in July to return to the grand jury for additional testimony and Fitzgerald accepted that offer Friday after taking grand jury testimony from the formerly jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

Before accepting the offer, Fitzgerald sent correspondence to Rove's legal team making clear that there was no guarantee he wouldn't be indicted at a later point as required by the rules.

What's interesting is that only after Rove decided to go back to the grand jury did his lawyer decide to speak up:

"I can say categorically that Karl has not received a target letter from the special counsel. The special counsel has confirmed that he has not made any charging decisions in respect to Karl," (Robert) Luskin said.

He said that Rove "continues to be cooperative voluntarily" with the special counsel investigation and "beyond that, any communication I have or may have in the future are going to be treated as completely confidential."

It seems to me that the lawyer knows that his client is about to throw somebody under the bus. My guess is that Rove is singing in the key of Cheney (which of course would mean going after Scooter Libby, the Veep's chief of staff). It's speculation, but the two men are at competing centers of power in the Bush Administration. Cheney leds the neocon, PNAC group, whereas Rove is a "power at all costs" guy without as much of an ideological cast. These are two big egos with the ear of the President.  I don't think it's an accident that this story about the spy in the VP's office has come out.  

Rove may just be trying to drive the neocons right out of this government.

Just a theory.