Spinmeister

This from Tim Grieve at Salon:

That said, a report in this morning's Los Angeles Times suggests that Rove may be close to clear. The Times says that "new information, reevaluation of older evidence and negotiations with Rove's lawyers" persuaded Fitzgerald not to indict Rove, at least not now. Among the evidence: An email exchange between Rove and former White House communications aide Adam Levine. The emails apparently came just after Rove leaked Plame's identity to Time's Matthew Cooper, and Rove's team is arguing that the fact that the emails don't mention the Plame leak are a sign that it wasn't particularly important to Rove and was therefore something he could have forgotten, innocently, when he was first asked about it by federal investigators.

If Fitzgerald buys Rove's explanation, then he's a lot more gullible than I thought. Rove "forget" a dirty trick that was the focus of the Vice President's office? I don't think so. And looking at emails? Does anyone really think that Rove would leave a paper trail of conversations that he knows are inappropriate (let alone illegal)? And how about "new information". Presented by Rove? Ah uh. Is Fitzgerald in the midst of "blinking" in a stare down?

There's a reason Bush has nicknamed Rove "Turdblossom". It's because Rove is always getting into shit and comes out smelling like a rose. I'm afraid he's gonna do it again. If you take Fitzgerald at his word, it looks like a 50/50 chance Rove walks and Fitzgerald goes back to Chicago.