Libby and Rove and… Cheney! Oh my!
Boy, I focus on some programming projects for a day, and bam! All Hell breaks loose.
So, just hitting the high points of the rumors that have been flying around today in anticipation of Patrick Fitzgerald’s upcoming (when? tomorrow?) announcements in his investigation of the Plame outing:
- New York Daily News – Cheney may be target of probe.
Cheney’s name has come up amid indications Fitzgerald may be edging closer to a blockbuster conspiracy charge – with help from a secret snitch.
“They have got a senior cooperating witness – someone who is giving them all of that,” a source who has been questioned in the leak probe told the Daily News yesterday.
- The Raw Story — Cheney aide cooperating with CIA outing probe, sources say.
A senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney is cooperating with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, sources close to the investigation say.
Individuals familiar with Fitzgerald’s case tell RAW STORY that John Hannah, a senior national security aide on loan to Vice President Dick Cheney from the offices of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, John Bolton, was named as a target of Fitzgerald’s probe. They say he was told in recent weeks that he could face imminent indictment for his role in leaking Plame-Wilson’s name to reporters unless he cooperated with the investigation.
- US News & World Report — White House Watch: Cheney resignation rumors fly.
Sparked by today’s Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney’s office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“It’s certainly an interesting but I still think highly doubtful scenario,” said a Bush insider. “And if that should happen,” added the official, “there will undoubtedly be those who believe the whole thing was orchestrated – another brilliant Machiavellian move by the VP.”
Said another Bush associate of the rumor, “Yes. This is not good.” The rumor spread so fast that some Republicans by late morning were already drawing up reasons why Rice couldn’t get the job or run for president in 2008.
- David Corn — Latest tips in the CIA leak case/Thanks to the Times.
Meanwhile, here’s another tip from a former government official. He says he spoke to a friend who works in the White House, and his pal described the consensus view among the Bush crew. The Bushies, according to my friend’s friend, expect Scooter Libby to be indicted. They believe Karl Rove will be indicted as well, but they still hope he may skate by. They also think that former press secretary Ari Fleischer is a goner. And they anticipate Dick Cheney will be named in the indictment(s) in some manner.
Strange days. I’m getting a really powerful flashback to sitting in my sixth-grade classroom watching the Watergate hearings.
I don’t think I ever really seriously considered that Fitzgerald’s indictments would stretch as far as Cheney. Rove, maybe. But Cheney? Take away Rove and Cheney, and who does Bush have left to do the actual figuring-stuff-out part?
Anyway, nothing’s official yet. But there certainly seems to be a big, dark thunderhead drifting in our direction, with a heavy sense of foreboding in the air and a few stray drops hitting the ground.
Heh. And just as I wrote that, I came across the following from ReddHedd of firedoglake: The gathering storm.
You can feel it, too, can’t you? That ever-growing feeling of pressure and tension in the air. That hint of ozone from the lightning striking closer and closer. It’s not just me this evening, is it?
Nope. It’s not just you.
