Time: Contingency plan (Rove's plan to resign if indicted)

[highplainsdem]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1118313,00.html


Contingency plan
By VIVECA NOVAK AND MIKE ALLEN

Posted Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005

Karl rove has a plan, as always. Even before testifying last week for the fourth time before a grand jury probing the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, Bush senior adviser Rove and others at the White House had concluded that if indicted he would immediately resign or possibly go on unpaid leave, several legal and Administration sources familiar with the thinking told TIME.

Resignation is the much more likely scenario, they say. The same would apply to I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the Vice President's chief of staff, who also faces a possible indictment. A former White House official says Rove's break with Bush would have to be clean—no "giving advice from the sidelines"—for the sake of the Administration.

Severing his ties would allow Rove—who as deputy chief of staff runs a vast swath of the West Wing—to fight aggressively "any bull___ charges," says a source close to Rove, like allegations that he was part of a broad conspiracy to discredit Plame's husband Joseph Wilson. Rove's defense: whatever he did fell far short of that.

Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be seriously weighing a perjury charge for Rove's failure to tell grand jurors that he talked to TIME correspondent Matthew Cooper about Plame, according to a person close to Rove. Rove corrected himself in a later grand jury session. If charged with perjury, he will maintain he simply didn't recall the conversation with Cooper and told Fitzgerald as soon as he did.

<snip>

[meegbear]

1. No "giving advice from the sidelines"?

I find that hard to believe. He'll still be in the thick of it.

[unblock]

5. it's all about IMAGE.

he has to give the APPEARANCE of not giving advice from the sidelines.

in other words, he will give advice from the sidelines, and part of that advice will be, "tell them i'm not giving advice from the sidelines."

[Carla in Ca]

23. Isn't that what the ear piece is for?

I'm sure he will never be far away from his puppet.

[JoFerret]

30. Love dies hard

...W has everything remember? Even a nice hard tobacco tin ring on the buttocks.

[ray of light]

2. problem for Rove and Libby is

that Fitz is too smart to just charge them unless it's winnable. His name is on the line. So it's not going to be a 'b*** S*** charge IF he does it. It will be rock solid!

[cassiepriam]

3. Resignation won't matter at all. He will just be an Unoffical Adviser.

Nothing will change.

[progressivebydesign]

28. If indicted he should lose ALL security clearances..

and be banned from official government buildings. The charges would lead most sane people to believe he is a threat to national security. He should also be placed on a no-fly list, frankly. But will that happen? Nope..

[SpiralHawk]

4. A real Commander in Chief would have already ordered him on leave

and then would FIRE him, not wait for him to squirm out of White House.

[Vickers]

6. "fight aggressively"

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

The idea of KKKarl fighting is hilarious!

Man, they are scared...Fitz has the goods on 'em, you can bet. :thumbsup:

[displacedtexan]

7. By all accounts, we're supposed to believe that Rove lied to *.

As if!

These two men have been joined at the hip for 25 years.

If Rove has to resign, he'll drive down Massachusetts Ave to the Heritage Foundation (or join the American Enterprise Institute) and continue to be paid for the same job he's so good at: lying and smearing political opponents.

[journalist3072]

8. My ultimate scenario..the one I'm really hoping for...

Libby and Rove indicted, and in jail by Christmas.

Bush and Cheney possibly indicted, or at least unindicted co-conspirators, along with others: Condi Rice and John Bolton, possibly.

[Penndems]

9. Rove "simply didn't recall the conversation with Cooper", yet he knows

the minutae of the personal lives of every single political opponent his candidates run against. There's bullshit here all right, but it's not in the charges (and Patrick Fitzgerald knows it).

What a lying, evil, despicable POS. :mad:

[Alizaryn]

10. Any guesses on who told Novak?

Miller maybe?

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

11. Rove Will Resign If Indicted

Karl Rove has a plan, as always. Even before testifying last week for the fourth time before a grand jury probing the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, Bush senior adviser Rove and others at the White House had concluded that if indicted he would immediately resign or possibly go on unpaid leave, several legal and Administration sources familiar with the thinking told TIME.

Story in this week's Time Magazine

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1118313,00.html

[seattlemetal]

12. Dont let the door hit you in the ass!

[MsConduct]

13. I don't like the 'if' part of the of the statement. n/t

[RebelOne]

16. Even if he does resign, there will only be another

neo-con to take his place. So what's the difference?

[Changenow]

14. Rove's Plan B: A presidential pardon.

He'll officially resign and go off the payroll, continue as he always has and get the pardon all Republican criminals get at the end a term.

No problem.

[arwalden]

18. You-u-u-u Betcha!

Presidential pardon for Rove, Scooter, Cheney, Frist, himself? (Can presidential pardons extend to the state level of law enforcement? Could he have the authority to pardon Delay?)

[Spinzonner]

20. Bush probably has no choice

If he doesn't pardon the conspirators, they will begin outting all his crimes

[Jose Diablo]

25. Before the dust clears on this and a BUNCH of other stuff

Bu$h, Cheney...all of them will be lucky if they are picking-up trash on the side of the highway, let alone issuing pardons.

[drm604]

26. What we need

is about a million people descending on the mall with "NO PARDONS!" signs.

I don't know that that could ever happen, and I'm not sure that it would do any good anyway. But seriously, is there anything that can be done to prevent * simply pardoning everyone? Would contacting Reps and Senators (especially Repub Reps and Senators) do any good? Would some kind of public outcry do some good? If public outrage were evident, the Repub Party may realize that pardons would damage them. But would the party have enough influence over *? If he pardons them in exchange for silence about his own complicity then is there anything that can prevent it?

Fitzgerald isn't dumb. He's aware of the possibility of pardons, but he's still proceeding. Why? Does he have something up his sleeve? Maybe some little known legal loophole? Is he making deals in exchange for testimony against *? Does he have something that he could use directly against Bush and is he planning to make a deal to prevent pardons? Maybe something like: resign and do not issue pardons and you can walk away.

Maybe this is what we'll see: Bush (and maybe Cheney), resigns and walks away with no charges. Everyone else is indicted on various charges such as conspiracy, perjury, revealing classified info, etc.

[Solly Mack]

15. As brazen as the Bush Regime is, Rove not resigning would be

a new level of chutzpah for even them. But Shrub does make his father look reasonable. So...I wouldn't exactly be surprised if Rove didn't resign.

But it would be the smart move for him to resign if indicted...

it's not like Bush wouldn't pardon him - Pardons for crimes against the government are par for the Bush family.

[goodboy]

17. funny, ``sources familiar with the thinking told TIME. `` WTF

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

31. WTF indeed.

"We talked to someone who could wrap his mind around a bullshit defense..."

:wtf:

[MGKrebs]

19. "whatever he did fell far short of that" Hah!

It may fall short of " a broad conspiracy to discredit Plame's husband Joseph Wilson" but that doesn't mean it falls short of a broad conspiracy to discredit Valerie Plame!

[ninkasi]

29. Especially since he has a track record

of smearing, discrediting, and general political cutthroat activities. He perfected the art of discrediting and smearing political enemies, and we're to believe that he didn't try this time? He's like his buddy Bush, mean, petty, and vindictive. It wouldn't really matter to him whether Joseph Wilson's report, and speaking the truth really hurt Bush or not. It just shows that he can't stand being crossed, or anybody who stands up to him.

Miserable, sneaky, cowardly little blob of ugly is what he is. My own feeling is that it would have been completely out of character for him NOT to retaliate against Wilson.

[Vinca]

21. Waiting for this is like the night before Christmas!

Come on, come on, come on. We want to know what's going to happen.:bounce:

[Peace Patriot]

22. I figure the pardons were negotiated during Katrina, when everybody--

perhaps most notably, Rove--were AWOL and left Bush Jr. hanging out there twisting in the wind, eating cake and so on, while thousands of Americans were dying and a big chunk of the country was getting blown off the map.

Rove's absence was so remarkable that he later put out a cover story that he had been in the hospital with kidney stones during Katrina.

I think Cheney, though, had a pre-agreed pardon, signed way back, with blanks left for assorted felonies that might have to be committed, to be filled in later. His negotiating point (for not ratting on Bush Jr.) was control of the Katrina loot. (You'll notice he didn't crawl out of his rathole until the loot started flowing toward Halliburton. Also, I think that may be what was behind Bush Jr.'s personal trip to strongarm Blanco into giving the WH total control, an absurd demand under the circumstances, and one for which he seemed to be using the poor dying blacks of NO as an extortion item (withholding aid until she agreed). I suspect his real mission was to purchase Cheney's silence regarding his own complicity in various crimes.)

In any case, I think the noticeable disarray in the WH during Katrina was not just the result a plot to clear poor blacks away from all that oil, and secure the region for the Cartel during the coming oil crunch (defunding FEMA, deliberate neglect), to discredit government as an agent of our common purposes (crony appointments, Brown and all that), and to degrade our values and emotions (as with shoving torture and unjust war down our throats)--all of which I think are true--but also, there was real disarray--vicious infighting, blackmailing of Bush, etc.--related to Treasongate.

My wild guess: Rove has ratted on Libby, and Libby will be indicted. Both have pardons in hand (--not sure how Libby got his, but probably also related to protecting Bush Jr.). Cheney will be named as "unindicted co-conspirator" and will resign and go to Halliburton Heaven. (--and good luck to anybody who tries to put him in jail).

The "aspens" are "turning" and turn in "clusters" because "their roots are connected" (Libby letter to Judith Miller) meant that the forces that were trying to plant WMDs in Iraq and got foiled by the "good CIA" (honest information gatherers)--the thing that Treasongate was trying to cover up--are still in place (are deeply rooted), and have "turned" (re-tooled) the WMD-planting plot toward Iran (maybe planted nukes "caught" at the border, with "evidence" of origins in Iraq?), and that Miller should "come back to work--and life" in order to cover this story, i.e., help the dark forces invade or nuke Iran, as she helped them invade Iraq.

Libby also tells her (if I'm reading his "Mata Hari" message correctly) that he will be "vacationing" in jail, as she had been, as part of the coverup. It's okay for her to testify against him now. A deal has been made, and the bigger project--torturing and killing Arabs and Muslims, controlling their countries and stealing their oil--is still on track.

My answer to all these troubles: Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

[RamboLiberal]

24. Novak's Source not in WH - so who leaked to Prince of Darkness?

Another character in the drama remains unnamed: the original source for columnist Robert Novak, who wrote the first piece naming Plame. Fitzgerald, says a lawyer who's involved in the case, "knows who it is—and it's not someone at the White House."

Miller? Any guesses here.

I'm like a kid awaiting Christmas. Hope Santa Fitzgerald does not disappoint.

[Garbo 2004]

27. Novak cited "two senior Administration officials" as his sources in his

column.

The Office of the Vice President is located in the Old Executive Office Building, not the White House. Recall that on June 23, 2003 Miller met Scooter in his office in the Old Executive Office Building, according to her account.

So, the "lawyer involved in the case" (i.e. no doubt a lawyer for one of the witnesses who may have reason to steer attention away from his client) may be correct and yet still misleading.

[usregimechange]

32. kick

[jazzjunkysue]

33. Yeah, baby. Come to Mamma. That's it. Just let it all fall. You know it's

over, now, so, just let all the cards fall in the house of lies. No more lies.

These little news stories are how they do it, to minimize the knock out punch of just a sudden press conference. They start openeing the door so that by the time it really happens, we're over the shock.

So, keep bringing us the little pieces of the puzzle. Keep it coming.