The Game Plan, Interrupted

Karl Rove thinks he has a plan to stop the bleeding in November by playing boogeyman. "The Dems will impeach the President! Booga booga!" And his servants in the press, like the above-linked NYT article and Tim Russert, are certainly pushing this theme. Of course, I've already said that what this amounts to is the Republicans telling their base to vote or else Congress might actually do their job.

Problem is, Karl might have to write the rest of the game plan really fast because it's hard to travel the country and brief state party chairmen when you're under arrest:

Shuster: ...I am convinced that Karl Rove will, in fact, be indicted. And there are a couple of reasons why. First of all, you don't put somebody in front of a grand jury at the end of an investigation or for the fifth time, as Karl Rove testified a couple, a week and a half ago, unless you feel that's your only chance of avoiding indictment. So in other words, the burden starts with Karl Rove to stop the charges. Secondly, it's now been 13 days since Rove testified. After testifying for three and a half hours, prosecutors refused to give him any indication that he was clear. He has not gotten any indication since then. And the lawyers that I've spoken with outside of this case say that if Rove had gotten himself out of the jam, he would have heard something by now. And then the third issue is something we've talked about before. And that is, in the Scooter Libby indictment, Karl Rove was identified as 'Official A.' It's the term that prosecutors use when they try to get around restrictions on naming somebody in an indictment. We've looked through the records of Patrick Fitzgerald from when he was prosecuting cases in New York and from when he's been US attorney in Chicago. And in every single investigation, whenever Fitzgerald has identified somebody as Official A, that person eventually gets indicted themselves, in every single investigation. Will Karl Rove defy history in this particular case? I suppose anything is possible when you are dealing with a White House official. But the lawyers that I've been speaking with who know this stuff say, don't bet on Karl Rove getting out of this.

All hell will break loose at the White House if Rove gets indicted. I think the new chief of staff, Josh Bolten, fancies himself a mini-Rove, only so far his great accomplishments are getting a bunch of people to resign and not changing the downward spiral whatsoever (and completely botching the Goss resignation, mind you). If Rove exits the stage Bolten will really have free reign, and given how he handled the federal budget at the OMB, I wouldn't have much worry about that circumstance.

Of course there would be a bit of schadenfruede at seeing a hint of accountability for the terrible mess we've gotten ourselves into over the last 5 years.