politburo diktat 2.0

Truthout vs. Team Rove: Round Two - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime

Not only is Truthout not backing down, they are flat-out calling Rove spokesman Marc Corallo and Rove Lawyer Robert Luskin’s denial false.Truthout adds a new twist: Rove “may” be cooperating and becoming a witness for Fitzgerald and Cheney may be in Fitzgerald’s cross-hairs.

TalkLeft has the details. Truthout’s site is swamped from a Drudge-lanche.

Leopold and Ash insist that there was an all-day meeting at Patton Boggs, that Rove was shown an indictment, and that Rove seems to have turned states evidence against Cheney. Rove’s people deny it flatly and completely.

There are many claims, counter-claims, reports, and denials here. I only have one minor observation. Leopold/Ash repeat that two network news video crews staked out Patton Boggs offices on Friday, May 12. Okay, let’s accept that. If those news crews had seen Rove, Fitzgerald, or any key attorneys coming or going from that office, wouldn’t they have led the evening news with that footage? I infer that the news crews did not catch any of the principals on site.

Whatever one’s politics, this sure is interesting. I can’t ever recall such a potentially explosive story being presented in two wholly contradictory versions for so long. The Lefties must be freaking out. Popcorn, anyone?

Kevin Drum at The Washington Monthly reacts similarly:

I, of course, have no way to judge the truth of either side, although it continues to be strange that Leopold claims to have multiple sources on this story and no other media outlet has even one. In any case, there’s damn little wiggle room left here. One side or the other is wrong on a truly spectacular scale and is now set up for an implosion of credibility on a galactic scale. Stay tuned.

Some links at Hot Air » Kukla, Fran, and Jason, on Leopold’s “sock puppet” antics across the blogosphere:

More sock-puppet theater from the blogosphere’s resident authority on the subject. Follow Patterico’s links, and credit the Kossacks for being willing to out one of their own.

Obviously, Leopold has some real credibility problems.

Howard Kurtz at Wa Po: Rove Lawyer Has a Pet Peeve

Robert Luskin, Karl Rove’s lawyer, says he spent most of the day on May 12 taking his cat to the veterinarian and having a technician fix his computer at home.He was stunned, therefore, when journalists started calling to ask about an online report that he had spent half the day at his law office, negotiating with Patrick Fitzgerald — and that the special prosecutor had secretly obtained an indictment of Rove.

The cat’s medical tests, Luskin says, found that “the stools were free of harmful parasites, which is more than I can say for this case.”