Does anyone think anything at all will happen to Rove, really?

[Crankie Avalon]

Call me a cynic, but this letter I just read at Salon.com pretty much sums up what I'm feeling:

Over the years of the Bush regime, I have come to realize that Rove could have written: "Joe Wilson's wife Victoria Plame is an undercover CIA operative and outing her as I ask you to do, as part of our political attack on Wilson, is treason and will endanger the lives of all her contacts living in other countries, but go ahead and do it anyway" in letters 9 feet high on a billboard, signing his name with a flourish; he could have been filmed doing so by a documentary news crew and 26 amateur videographers, and still not one damn thing would happen to him.

The Bush administration has never held anyone accountable for anything. They give medals to total screw-ups. Karl Rove knows the deepest, darkest, dirtiest secrets of everyone in the administration. Between his knowledge and his ability to spin any amount of evil into looking like it's OK, he is far too dangerous and valuable to them to let anything happen to him, even if they ever did hold anyone to account.

He will not be convicted, he will not go to trial, he will not be fired, he will not be asked to resign, he will not be reprimanded. He will go on dismantling American democracy and covering up for others who do so. Notice that, though willing to push Scott McClellan around a little –- and a wonderful sight that was! -– no reporter has yet so much as mentioned all the senior intelligence people who stepped forward when Ms. Plame was outed and said, "The lives of many if not all of her contacts have just been endangered."

No one dares harm Karl Rove. And what could be a more sad and profound statement of how the democracy of America has crumbled into tyranny?

-- Katharine Wiley

Do you agree, or are you more optimistic?

[Deep13]

1. The grand jury is not under W's thumb.

That is cause for optimism.

[Crankie Avalon]

10. Hope your right...

...and, hey, at least this is a nice interlude from the "news" giving us wall-to-wall coverage of Tom Cruise and runaway brides all the time.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. I agree. n/t

[whatever4]

3. More likely than not, they'll all walk. Snickering all the way nt

[Totally Committed]

4. I, for one, am not optomistic at all...

I think, come Friday, this story will die over the weekend, and all will be forgotten by the gutless MSM.

"I'll believe it when I see it..." is my operational mode at the moment.

TC

[Atman]

5. I just posted this on another board...

So I guess you could say I agree...

--

First of all, Rove will not be convicted of anything. If he is "fired," it will be for show only, and he'll be shuffled back in through the kitchen door. The BFEE would bump off Barbara Bush for the headlines before it would allow Rove to go.

Remember, they KNOW he is a liar and a manipulator. That is exactly why they hired him. They had to "fire" him once before for similar dirty dealings, and look where it got him...he's right-hand man to the president.

This will be brushed off on a technicality. It will be shown that Rove didn't actually say "Valerie Plame" or that Rove supposedly didn't know who she was, which would be an absurd suggestion on its face.

But it doesn't matter. Rove could fuck a kindergartner and kill her puppy, in broad daylight, in a church, while burning a flag and filing a false tax return, and the Bush supporters on this board will say "It is just the whining democrats."

[The Stranger]

6. No, I am not optimistic, and I agree with Ms. Wiley.

We try to hope but lose that hope little by little, at every turn.

[chapel hill dem]

13. I think the republicans are gleefully feeding this fire to distract the

media from other issues. A trial lawyer friend told me this morning that if Rove really testified to the GJ THREE times and has not received a form DOJ "Target" letter, then, well, he is not a target -- somebody else is. And, if Judith Miller stays quiet until the GJ expires in October, not much may come of the whole Special Prosecutor investigation.

I am much more worried about the issues that are being overshadowed by the Rove/Plame coverage since most Americans have a very short attention span regarding political issues. Kind of the "who won the game last night? Next..." mentality.

[Sweet Pea]

7. "Does anyone think anything at all will happen to Rove, really?"

Nope.

[benburch]

8. Yes!

Some rogue CIA agent will eventually take him out.

[Bassic]

18. The CIA keeps getting kicked in the nads by this administration doesn't it

How long till the figure they've had enough you think?

[CitrusLib]

9. Just judging by the look of him, I'd say he's headed for

a coronary or stroke eventually. But beyond his own health doing him in, I have my own doubts he'll ever be held accountable for his evil in this lifetime.

[JSK]

17. Or maybe a brain tumor

like his buddy,Lee Atwater.

[Dhalgren]

11. Maybe not in the legal arena, but the CIA is a bitch to piss-off.

There are people walking around in the CIA right now that would scare the shit out of Attila the Hun. If Rove skates on this, then what will the CIA do "unofficially" - or one of its "Borne Identity" types? I don't think that being Karl Rove, right now, is all that good of a thing...for him...

[necso]

12. Time will tell.

One does hope, however, that this won't distract from efforts to derail CAFTA.

One is, however, not particularly hopeful in this regard.

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

14. I agree with her assessment

Nothing will happen, and dems won't pursue it.

[bunny planet]

15. Trying to stay positive. Yes, I do think something will happen to Rove, &

I'm also hoping for the scandal to lead to someone higher up on the food chain as well. Call me crazy, I'm literally exhausted from being hopeless about this administration ever being called to account on anything. Even the Teflon Don,John Gotti was eventually taken down. One can only hope the Teflon Preznit will also go down.

[Bassic]

16. I tend to agree with you.

But then again, I hope to be pleseantly surprised.

[Norquist Nemesis]

19. I'd love to see it happen, but I'm reserved about it

in the same way as the OP. At every turn, the anti-Democratic wing fires shots like a hired gun and moves on to the next target, without fear...or conscience.

Even if Rove would be fired or resigned, that doesn't mean he would not still be "The Architect" for all sorts of future political shenanigans. He's well-connected and funds won't be a problem. At best, he'd be public about setting up some sort of PAC and gleeful about openly seeking to destroy this country toward furthering us to a one-party system through Anti-Democrat smear campaigns. At worst, he'd go underground for a while and run traffic but all for the same end goal.

So, no. I don't see anything happening to him. But I sure would like to wake up one morning and read that he's been tossed into the slammer.

[pdxmike]

20. yes

We are so used to these scum bags getting away with murder, that it's only natural that they'll skate again. But remember folks- THIS IS A GRAND JURY. They can't spin and lie their way out of this.

So relax. Sit back. And watch the talking heads spew all they want. At the end of the day they will still have to answer to an aggressive (and by all accounts honest) Republican prosecutor.

[warrens]

21. much more optimistic

And reporters and editorial pages are starting to ask who was endangered. If a person died or was arrested because of this, the entire administration could fall. But even if not, there is no "no harm, no foul" subparagraph in the law.

The only way Rove gets out of this is if there are not TWO people who will testify that Rove told them. That's in the law; there have to be two witnesses. So he might skate on a technicality. I don't think, however, that the average American is going to look on this kindly. It's only the true wingnuts who are defending the guy, and speciously at that.

[gkhouston]

22. YES.

It's hard to be patient, but I do believe Fitzgerald's going to get Rove, and I suspect KKKarl will have company.

[earth mom]

23. Wish I could be optimistic like some are, but NO, he's too important to *

Look how they swept the Gannon story under the rug by pretending it didn't happen. They will do the same thing here.

The BFEE is accountable to NO ONE and we best not forget it! :sarcasm:

[LunaC]

24. Definite YES

Fitzgerald wouldn't have been such a hard-ass with Cooper and Miller unless he wanted very specific corroborating testimony from them. He's got something. We just don't know what it is....outing Plame, perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice are a few choices from his Indictment Menu. One or all will put Rove AND Smirk on the hot seat.

[Imagevision]

25. If the US. court system means anything? yes Rove should be charged

with a felony and immediately be fired at the very least.

Rove to Chris Mathews; " Valerie Plaine is "fair game" ????????????!!