I overslept. So I wake up to a world which reminds me of the Godfather movies, or perhaps that bit in Shakespeare where the king wonders aloud about who might rid him of that pesky priest. Or insert your own parable here for what one newspaper article argues that George Bush did when he heard that Rove had engineered things a bit in the Plame affair:
An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.
"He made his displeasure known to Karl," a presidential counselor told The News. "He made his life miserable about this."
Bush has nevertheless remained doggedly loyal to Rove, who friends and even political adversaries acknowledge is the architect of the President's rise from baseball owner to leader of the free world.
As special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald nears a decision, perhaps as early as today, on whether to issue indictments in his two-year probe, Bush has already circled the wagons around Rove, whose departure would be a grievous blow to an already shell-shocked White House staff and a President in deep political trouble.
Asked if he believed indictments were forthcoming, a key Bush official said he did not know, then added: "I'm very concerned it could go very, very badly."
"Karl is fighting for his life," the official added, "but anything he did was done to help George W. Bush. The President knows that and appreciates that."
Yesss. Anything Karl did was for George, and that is so sssweet. Just like in the Godfather! This article might not be telling the truth, of course, but it's interesting to imagine what might happen if it does tell the truth. For example, could George himself get into trouble with the possible admission that he knew all along what was going on? Or at least knew about it early enough to go and give testimony in Fitzgerald's investigation? But I've heard that Bush has not testified under oath so he is probably safe.
Rove might not be safe, though all he is doing right now is canceling appearances:
Rove canceled plans to attend two Republican fund-raisers, the national party confirmed Tuesday. And he did not give his scheduled speech to the conservative Hudson Institute think tank on Oct. 11.
Republican National Committee spokesman Brian Jones said scheduling conflicts kept Rove from an RNC fund-raiser Monday night in Greenwich, Conn., and a Virginia Republican Party fund-raiser Saturday.
Jones would not specify what the conflicts were or whether they had anything to do with the federal grand jury that Rove has testified before four times. "He was unable to attend," Jones said.
I'm on tenterhooks, whatever they might be.