From a reader, in the spirit of balance:

Dear Jonah,
Actually, the Leopold story has, by and large, _not_ been believed by many
people on the lefty blogosphere, which has done an admirable job of policing
itself despite the wishful thinking of many of its members. Even those like
myself who think there is something to the story question many of the
details, even the most important one. For example, I find it hard to
believe that the GJ has voted to indict already. Had Rove been informed of
this, as Leopold’s story suggests, he would have told Bush and resigned
immediately. Surely they wouldn’t want the headline to read: “Rove
indicted on May 12; Bush lets him keep working for another week.”
Other details that seem strange are the “15-hour marathon session” at Patton
Boggs and the “24 [business] hours” to “get his affairs in order,” which was
misleading and quite possibly what hurt Leopold’s credibility most.
That said, I’ve listened to Leopold twice on radio programs and have
followed his editor’s comments carefully, and I just don’t think he’s lying.
They’re now claiming at Truthout.com that three MSM sources have the same
story, but only one source, and hence are not running it. But even if
Leopold’s story does pan out, his reputation is already so tarnished that
few on the leftwing blogosphere will believe his future big scoops. His
story was sloppy, misleading (the 24 hour thing), and quite possibly
informed by bad sources. And yet, when you listen to him he does not sound
like a guy who’s making this all up.
For what it’s worth, here’s what I think may have happened: Fitzgerald
likely did have a meeting (if not 15 hours) with Rove and his lawyers at
Patton Boggs, in which he informed them of his decision to seek an
indictment. From what I understand, he did this with Libby on October 21, a
week before the actual vote, filing and press conference. He may have
attempted to negotiate a plea bargain, giving Rove some time this week to
think about it. If not, the indictment would either be voted on and filed
on Friday (tomorrow). It could have already been voted on, but not filed,
and hence no need for Rove to resign just yet.
Anyway, just the musings of another loony lefty hoping that Rove will be
indicted. I did appreciate Byron’s fact-checking and your thoughts as well.