The charade is collapsing. One wishes these problems emerged before the 2004 election.

Saturday, October 29, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Fear, doubts linger for GOP
By Doyle McManus and Mary Curtius
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — At first, there were almost audible sighs of relief among White House aides and Republican leaders in Congress: Karl Rove, President Bush's closest political adviser, was not indicted.

Instead, the prosecutor's target Friday was a far more obscure figure: Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

"Most people who have commented on this thought it was very good news for Karl Rove," said influential Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif. "Well, if it's good news for Karl Rove, it's good news for me."

But as the day wore on, a more sober reality became clear: The decision by a federal grand jury to bring charges against Libby while Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald continues pondering a possible indictment for Rove left Bush and his aides stranded under much the same cloud of uncertainty as before.

"If anybody is popping champagne bottles, they ought to be putting them back into the refrigerator," conservative activist Paul Weyrich warned. "In the conservative community, we are very divided, but there is one thing we all agree on: Rove is brilliant and gave Bush, through the first term ... good advice."

A former administration official who still advises the White House — and so insisted on anonymity — said the continuing doubt over Rove's legal fate has changed the White House, once a fearsome political juggernaut, into a hesitant and distracted bureaucracy.

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