Sounds like Scooter is toast

Frankly, don't you think that a grown man having the nickname "Scooter" in and of itself warrants jail time? I kid.

But no one any longer seems to be seriously considering the possibility that Patrick Fitzgerald WON'T indict anyone. The only question is how many, and of course MY question is whether the number will equal 23.

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.

Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby have been advised that they may be in serious legal jeopardy, the lawyers said, but only this week has Mr. Fitzgerald begun to narrow the possible charges. The prosecutor has said he will not make up his mind about any charges until next week, government officials say.

With the term of the grand jury expiring in one week, though, some lawyers in the case said they were persuaded that Mr. Fitzgerald had all but made up his mind to seek indictments. None of the lawyers would speak on the record, citing the prosecutor's requests not to talk about the case.

Associates of Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby continued to express hope that the prosecutor would conclude that the evidence was too fragmentary and that it would be difficult to prove Mr. Rove or Mr. Libby had a clear-cut intention to misinform the grand jury. Lawyers for the two men declined to comment on their legal status.

Notice that the lawyers are talking about "hope", not "confidence."

It's interesting also how C-Plus Caligula is referring to these investigations and the discussion about them as "background noise." I'm beginning to think that he honestly believes this, given the bubble in which he lives. I suspect that someone is keeping him as much in the dark as possible about what's going on, perhaps to allow for "plausible deniability" -- or else because he's becoming completely irrelevant even as a figurehead.

Other bloggers on my side of the fence are eagerly shopping and wrapping gifts for "Fitzmas", or as John Aravosis points out, "Fitzukkah, for our Jewish friends." Yes, it's funny, and the temptation to rub our hands together with glee is strong. Schadenfreude feels awfully good, but like too much booze, the aftermath could be horrific.

Right now we have an Executive branch of government in which just about everyone is either about to be indicted or under suspicion. In the Legislative branch, the former House Minority Leader has already been charged and booked for money laundering. The Senate Majority Leader is under investigation for insider trading. As for the Judicial branch, well, what can I say except that they got us into this in the first place.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: We have no viable opposition party, because ITS leaders are too busy trying to figure out how they can finesse why they supported Bush's war in the first place, when half a million people marching in New York City in early 2002 knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

So we have a government in disarray with no opposition. Absolutely zero real progress has been made on making our borders safer, other than implementing policies to harass American citizens, particularly dissidents. This country is hemorhagging jobs overseas, standards of living are dropping, home heating is going to drive people to bankruptcy this winter, which now doesn't even help them; rather it helps the credit card companies.

Oh yeah...and avian flu is spreading.

As much as I'd love to enjoy watching this Administration fall, I fear what a power vacuum is going to do in terms of not just terrorism, but also for implementing policies that might forestall a flu pandemic. This doesn't mean I don't want them to fall, because they richly deserve to all be led out on handcuffs, but someone had damn well better be prepared to step up to the plate.