We've been
buried in anticipatory stories as reporters giddily anticipate
what many of them see as The Next Watergate, the possible indictment
of two lofty figures in the Bush White House.
Doubters
say this is much ado about nothing, a story completely contrived
by those who drool at the prospect of scandal tainting this administration.
What's an
objective soul to do?
The first
thing to do is question that objectivity. Is it even possible
to approach the Karl Rove/"Scooter" Libby/Joe Wilson/Valerie
Plame Wilson story with an eye unaffected by politics?
Probably
not, so let's all be honest with ourselves. For me, as a general
supporter of this president, my default settings are to hope that
people I admire do not break the law and to question the motives
of those who prematurely presume that laws have been broken.
But with
that comes a hefty responsibility. I must have the spine to face
it if Mr. Rove and/or Mr. Libby are indicted and to do it without
the whining and denials heard from so many Clinton supporters
as he faced the music for his prevarications.
At the risk
of being dead wrong in a very short time, I am among those predicting
that neither Mr. Rove nor Mr. Libby will be indicted for violating
the law against revealing the name of a known covert CIA agent.
The only
remote possibility I see is special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald
viewing any inconsistent testimony from the two as malicious intent
to deceive and not just faulty memory.
Rove and
Libby enemies can roll their eyebrows at the flawed recollection
scenario, but let's review the context.
As right-hand
men for the president and vice president, Karl Rove and "Scooter"
Libby were properly involved in countering an effort by Joe Wilson,
a disgruntled diplomat, to smear the war effort.
A bipartisan
Senate committee has now discredited much of the story Mr. Wilson
has paraded all over television on his way to becoming an anti-war
hero, details ranging from who sparked his trip to Niger to what
he found there.
But as the
stories were breaking, it was thoroughly understandable for the
Bush team to try to question the purity of Mr. Wilson's motives.
Once the possibility arose of his CIA wife as a key advocate for
his ideologically charged journey, one can additionally imagine
a flurry of conversations about the significance of that angle.
So, a year
or more later: Quick! Where did you first hear the name "Valerie
Plame"? Was it from a reporter? Was it from the vice president?
Those are the two answers Mr. Libby apparently gave on separate
occasions, leading to yesterday's breathless story in The
New York Times.
Egad! Mr.
Libby may have heard this woman's name not from a journalist,
but from Dick Cheney himself! Stop the presses!
It must have
been quite the adrenaline rush three decades ago as reporters
gleefully watched the self-destruction of a White House they despised.
Many in the current media generation long for that same thrill.
They won't
get it. Even if Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby go down, none of their
misdeeds, real or imagined, will constitute an anchor heavy enough
to drown the Bush presidency.
This White
House is gurgling plenty on its own right now, with a Supreme
Court nomination that is close to flat-lining and a war that yields
good news that no one pays attention to. Between the Plame story
and Hurricane Wilma, did anyone notice that the Iraqi constitution
was proclaimed officially passed yesterday?
I wonder
whether that story would have been so buried if it had failed.
Which brings us to what this whole "Plamegate" mess
is about: this presidency and this war.
Supporters
of both have little time to be bothered with the Wilsons, while
detractors long for an early Christmas – indictments that
they will spin to discredit President Bush and the war as a whole.
We'll see
who's smiling by the weekend.
