Jonah, you could very well be right – especially if some plea deal made this all go away fast. (I’m not suggesting that Scooter should plead guilty; I’m just dealing with what Jonah has raised.)
Possible wild card: How much more effective is a media drum beat if Dick Morris is spearheading it with a theme that people might find intriguing?
I was struck last week, watching him interviewed on Fox, at how aggressively he went after Cheney. Morris is hawking a book that boldly predicts the 2008 election will pit Hillary Clinton against Condi Rice. I understand the book (which I haven’t read and have heretofore had little interest in) is doing well, so there is some public attention. Morris knows he will look like a genius if this scenario comes to pass – and he seems a tad like one of those guys who badly wants to look like a genius.
Who knows if Condi has any interest? But there was Morris, pointing out that she’d be a much better bet to get the nomination if she were the sitting Vice President, then painting a picture of the Veep, beleaguered by the Plame scandal, stepping down, Condi becoming Veep, etc.
No charges had even been filed yet. Now they have. Fitz, at the press conference, was categorical that he was not accusing Cheney of any wrongdoing. But, Morris is hot to trot, the MSM loathes the Veep, and the indictment of Libby while no harm seems to have come to Wilson for his mendacity, is only gonna encourage the CIA/State Department elements who have been slinging mud at the so-called “neocon cabal” all along.
And now they have a narrative timeline to work with. And lots of obvious questions to ask about internal deliberations in the Veep’s office throughout. Could this get traction? I don’t know. But I bet a number of media people are going to try, and so is Dick Morris. I don’t have a good sense of how effective they could be.
Meanwhile, though, between a new Supremes nominee and Ahmadinejad (and Israel’s possible reaction), the page could get turned pretty quickly.