politburo diktat 2.0

Aide to Cheney Appears Likely to Be Indicted; Rove Under Scrutiny

Hey, Kos, Atrios, Gilliard, Billmon, here’s yer Fitzmas present:

Associates of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, expected an indictment on Friday charging him with making false statements to the grand jury in the C.I.A. leak inquiry, lawyers in the case said Thursday.

Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but will remain under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said. As a result, they said, the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, was likely to extend the term of the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration on Friday.

As rumors coursed through the capital, Mr. Fitzgerald gave no public signal of how he intends to proceed, further intensifying the anxiety that has gripped the White House and left partisans on both sides of the political aisle holding their breath.

Mr. Fitzgerald’s preparations for a Friday announcement were shrouded in secrecy, but advanced amid a flurry of behind-the-scenes discussions that left open the possibility of last-minute surprises. As the clock ticked down on the grand jury, people involved in the case did not rule out the disclosure of previously unknown aspects of the case.

It’s been two years. Shouldn’t Fitzgerald now issue indictments or fold up? So far, conservative commentators and bloggers have hardly squeaked about Fitzgerald. Almost all have accepted his characterization as a straight shooter and a non-partisan. But if he now seeks to hold the federal government hostage to his apparently open-ended investigation, that will change.

This investigation ultimately is about ‘who said what to whom when.’ Fitzgerald has had two years to unscramble that. He has hauled Karl Rove before the grand jury four times. It is time for him to cross the Rovicon … or not.