Unlike the Libby case, writing about Rove is like falling into quicksand.

***WayneMadsenReport***

May 20, 2006 -- Yesterday came and passed without an announcement by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in Leakgate. WMR is coming up on its first anniversary (May 27). In our launch edition it was stated, "In the tradition of Drew Pearson's and Jack Anderson's famous Washington Merry-Go-Round syndicated column and I.F. Stone, this online publication tackles the 'politically incorrect' and 'politically embarrassing' stories and holds government officials accountable for their actions. This web site extends a warm open invitation to whistleblowers and leakers. Business as usual for the crooks and liars in Washington, DC, is over."

WMR is as good as our sources and contacts. We vet them, cultivate them, and protect them. If they pass legitimate information, we report it. If situations change and items we report do not pan out, that does not reflect badly on them. Note the term "item." WMR is a political insider publication. Our daily reports are not standard news stories that name sources and quote them but items -- compilations of what we hear and read from our confidential sources. WMR reports what would never be permitted to leave the news rooms of The Washington Post, New York Times, ABC News, or CNN. After all, reporting raw information would get their editors and reporters tossed off every social "A list" and "B list" in Washington.

WMR stands by its report that there was a meeting between Fitzgerald and Rove and his attorneys at Patton Boggs LLC in Washington on Friday, May 12. The meeting was to inform Rove that he would be indicted. The Attorney General had been informed in person by the Grand Jury that they had indicted Rove -- the same courtesy afforded him last October in the Libby case. The Grand Jury was apparently not in session yesterday but that does not mean the Rove matter was off the agenda. According to the daily docket in the Clerk's Office, two US District Court judges were deliberating cases in which there were potentially sealed indictments. Judge Alan Kay heard a case titled "UNITED STATES v. SEALED." Judge Reggie Walton, the presiding judge in the Libby trial, deliberated a number of cases titled "SEALED v. SEALED." With a sealed indictment in hand, the Special Prosecutor could have been negotiating a plea agreement with the Rove camp during the last week. And that may have set off a guerre royale between the Special Prosecutor and White House, with the prosecutor at a severe disadvantage.

Even before WMR reported on Rove's likely indictment yesterday, there were clear signs that something was amiss. Rather than keep Rove out of the public eye, the White House put him out in front of the neocon American Enterprise Institute on Monday, had him arm twisting GOP members of Congress during the week, and had him fly to Lake County, Illinois Friday night for a GOP fundraiser and pep talk. Washington insiders report that if the White House were confident that Rove would soon be indicted, they would refrain from having him out among GOP ranks taking part in future embarrassing photo ops. Which brings us back to yesterday's item about the power of the Special Counsel as opposed to that of an Independent Special Counsel. Even Watergate independent counsel Archibald Cox was not immune enough to prevent him from being fired by Richard Nixon. (Although the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General refused to fire Cox and resigned, the dirty work was carried out by the Solicitor General, Robert Bork). Fitzgerald is merely protected by a series of Justice Department administrative directives and not by anything even close to an Independent Counsel Statute. In taking on the most powerful and unconstitutional administration in the history of the United States, Fitzgerald's brief is certainly vulnerable to pressure from the White House. And it is clear that something drastic followed the May 12 meeting at Patton & Boggs.

First, a small number of journalists who were writing about the Rove indictment found themselves being spun by Rove's media machine and his paid spokesperson, former Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo, a longtime GOP hack. Some questionable information about two of the journalists were posted anonymously on a blog. The blog information made claims that Corallo was involved in telephone conversations with two journalists and deceptive practices were brought up. WMR refused to get drawn into this circle of intrigue and we reported on it on May 16 (see below). Mid-week, WMR received an email form someone claiming to be a reporter for a major TV news network. It claimed that Gonzales was no where near the US Courthouse on May 12 and insinuated that the reporter was able to see the members of the secret Grand Jury come and go, that the same Grand Jury deliberating the Rove matter was also hearing a drug case, and that the reporter had somehow been given inside information into the secret Grand Jury proceedings. The "reporter" failed to mention the well-armed, multi-vehicle motorcade that arrived at the Courthouse from the Justice Department at the rear garage of the courthouse, placed the Attorney General's personal security detail throughout the courthouse annex, and returned to Justice some 30 minutes later. WMR's report on the Rove matter became the subject of ridicule by the typical right-wing network in Washington, including shills for the National Review, other neocon outlets, and the Rove camp.

Unlike the Libby case, writing about Rove is like falling into quicksand.

Nevertheless, Friday, May 19, came and went without an announcement of an indictment. The "news" last week was about journalists who wrote about the impending indictment, exactly the focus Rove and the White House enjoy. Meanwhile, a jovial Rove and an even cockier Rove spokesman reveled in the mini-media storm they helped to create -- Rovian manipulation at its best. WMR has been on Leakgate since 2003, from talking to principals in the case, to staking out the Federal Courthouse in the Libby and Rove grand jury proceedings, to talking to those aware of the damage done to the CIA's counter-proliferation work. However, the Kabuki dance between the Special Counsel, Rove and his lawyers, and certain media are becoming a huge distraction. WMR apologizes to its loyal and supportive readers for being led, along with our sources, down the Rove rabbit hole of media mirages and public relations B.S. Until an actual announcement is made by the Special Prosecutor regarding Rove, we will concentrate our limited resources on other, more important, stories, including continuing CIA rendition flights, NSA eavesdropping, and Iraq war atrocities.