[Plame Indictments]

Libby is Huge

The conservative reaction, as even Fitzgerald predicted, is minimization. Here's Glenn Reynolds:

Lying to a grand jury is serious, if true. The rest is Martha Stewart stuff. But this isn't the Libby-Rove-Cheney takedown that the lefties have been hoping for -- there's not even a charge of "outing" a covert agent -- and the very extravagance of their hopes will make this seem much less significant. If there's no more, this will probably do Bush little harm.

This is patent BS. Three things bear mentioning, and then I'll shut up on this for the near term. Scooter Libby is one of the inner circle--he's not a fringe character. A year ago, the suggestion that the Plame investigation might turn up a player of this stature would have been too much to hope for. The second point is that we've watched the classic game by the right--set the bar very high (or low) and then declare victory when something fails to meet the false expectations. Claiming that the failure to indict Rove (now) as a victory is a perverse way to look at things.

Finally, appropos of Reynolds' claim that Bush will be little hurt by this, I think we're beginning to see the pretty dramatic deviation between the echo chamber and reality. This is huge; the WH was caught using classified information to punish a political foe. For the man who would bring honor to the White House, this is a pretty damning indictment. It is quite likely that apologists like Reynolds will skip down the road, unimpressed by the moral lapse this represents. Whether that's the same for the family of four in Ames, Iowa remains to be seen.

Oh, one final prediction: Libby will plead guilty. There's no way the WH lets this thing go to trial.