Andy, the New York Times’s story is really quite astounding. It states in its lead paragraph that Fitzgerald’s evident decision not to produce a final report is “heightening the expectation that he intends to bring indictments, lawyers in the case and law enforcement officials said yesterday.” Well, maybe it is. But clearly those people know nothing about the deliberations inside the office, and just as clearly the heightened expectations are especially among those who are desperately desirous of this conclusion. “Fitzgerald has repeatedly told lawyers in the case that he has not made up his mind about criminal charges,” the Times says. Well, what does that mean? It could mean he is thinking about criminal charges; it could mean that the cases he might be able to make are too weak. And since the Fitzgerald tale comes second-hand, who knows what he actually said or didn’t say?

Lower down in the story it makes clear that by some reckonings, the publishing of any report would be a violation of normal grand-jury practice, and from what you and others have said about Fitzgerald, he isn’t the type to want to establish a new set of rules when it comes to the release of highly sensitive information.

In any case, since the body of conventional liberal opinion has already convicted those who have not even been charged with anything, anything less than an indictment brought against Dick Cheney is now liable to be seen by many on the Left as a whitewash.