WTF Is It Now?!?

Appointment with destiny
WH svengali faces fourth grand jury appearance today, possible bass taping in FPMITA prison tomorrow.

Karl Rove is getting a fourth and likely final chance to convince grand jurors he did nothing criminal in the CIA leak case, and prosecutors are warning him there is no guarantee he will not be indicted.

Defense lawyers increasingly are concerned Fitzgerald might pursue charges such as false statements, obstruction of justice or mishandling classified information.

The White House has shifted from categorical denials two years ago that Rove or Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, were involved in the leak of a covert CIA officer's name to "no comment" today.

Jitters at the White House over the leak inquiry
The prospect of a White House without Rove has some allies of the president in a near panic.

[A]dministration officials and friends and allies on the outside who speak regularly with them [say there is] a mood of intense uncertainty in the White House that veers in some cases into fear of the personal and political consequences and anger at having been caught in the snare of a special prosecutor. And given how badly things have been going for Mr. Bush and his team on other fronts - a poll released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center put his approval rating at 38 percent, a new low - they hardly have deep reserves of internal enthusiasm or external good will to draw on.

- the NY Times.