Blood in the water

The Rove affair continues to obsess Washington and the political blogosphere, where it is becoming mortal political combat.

There is a certain blood lust in the glee with which anti-Bushites are going after Rove, and there is the give-no-quarter distortions and lies of the GOPer defenders. The result is a lot of ugly noise, a little light, and it seems to me a short-sighted strategy ending with getting rid of Rove, while indications accumulate that everybody may be missing the true dimensions of the situation.

Having outrageously slandered war heroes who happened to be Democrats running for office, and gained advantage by doing so, the GOPers are now defaming a CIA undercover agent and a number of unknown people who worked with her, all of whom risked their lives believing it to be in service of their country. In short, these GOPers are cowards and liars, and the Democrats are treating Rove a bit too much as an opportunity for vengeance.

Rove certainly deserves to be taken down, although to get him for this offense is a lot like getting Al Capone on tax evasion.

But in the "fire Rove" campaign, besides vengeance and some temporary political gain, what is the point? Of course, Bush should fire Rove, but he won't. And "getting rid of Rove" alone will accomplish little.

The White House is stonewalling and absent anything more substantive but this noisy frenzy, they can keep it up long enough for Rove to resign. If things quiet a bit, he will resign "to pursue opportunities in the private sector" or "to spend more time with his family," and the apologists will point out that presidential aides often resign in the last couple of years of a second term.

If the frenzy continues, Rove will resign "to spare the president the distraction of this controversy."

Then what? That's what I wish some folks would be thinking about, but at the moment it seems everybody's thinking with their glands.

The savagery of this conflict is a pale but apt reflection of the savagery in Iraq. The whole idea of civilization is unraveling before our eyes.

In the meantime, some observers are suggesting that there is more to the ongoing investigation than the naming of an undercover CIA agent. There may be widespread violation of the Espionage Act in the Bush White House, as asserted in this summary from dkos.

This could get bigger than Watergate, and it could bring down the Bush White House. But the key will be the criminal investigation, not the Washington political bloodsport.