A quibble: The Times doesn't actually come right out and say that the charges will be limited to obstruction/perjury; it's much more weasely than that:
As he weighs whether to bring criminal charges in the C.I.A. leak case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel, is focusing on whether Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, and I. Lewis Libby Jr., chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, sought to conceal their actions and mislead prosecutors, lawyers involved in the case said Thursday.Among the charges that Mr. Fitzgerald is considering are perjury, obstruction of justice and false statement - counts that suggest the prosecutor may believe the evidence presented in a 22-month grand jury inquiry shows that the two White House aides sought to cover up their actions, the lawyers said.
What this means is that Rove and Libby's lawyers know from the questions that Fitz has them dead to rights on these charges, so they might as well get them out there now, and emphasize how "peripheral" they are.
They've got a pretty strong incentive not to bring up the much less peripheral charge that Rove and Libby orchestrated a conspiracy to obstruct justice, and were part of a conspiracy to commit the original offenses.
Remember, we've got no evidence so far of any leaks that are demonstrably from Fitz's side. Any "lawyers say" article is thus presumptively Luskin's spin on behalf of his client. If your spin consists of emphasizing that the charges against your client are peripheral little matters like perjury and obstruction, you are in deep, deep shit.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 21, 2005 01:46 AMI guess one by one the news of who's in trouble will be "leaked" to the press so by the time the indictments come down, we will already know who is getting it. So far: Rove, Libby, Hadley.
Posted by Ga6thDem at October 21, 2005 05:22 AMThe more interesting aspect of this investigsation is the pandoras box that is Cheny and the White House Iraq working Group (WHIG).
With the 2 cheney aides that are now cooperating with Fitz, there is a real chance this stink bomb lands on Cheney's feet, a develeopment of proportions not seen since Watergate.
Read more about it here
Posted by Hamilsizzle at October 21, 2005 05:24 AMAt the least, we've learned,undisputed by the WH, that Rove and Bush talked about this years ago. Meaning Bush has, again, lied straight to the American people about his Administration's involvement. He can/will find some tiny linguistic loophole (is, is )to give the Wingnuts their out, but the other 70% of the country will know the truth. Like Mulder said "the truth is out there" and now most of the country is finally seeing it. Too bad it has cost 2000 American lives.
Posted by T2 at October 21, 2005 06:30 AM