Informed Speculation

So it all comes down to this:

The prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case has narrowed his investigation of Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, to whether he tried to conceal from the grand jury a conversation with a Time magazine reporter in the week before an intelligence officer’s identity was made public more than two years ago, lawyers in the case said Thursday.

The special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has centered on what are believed to be his final inquiries in the matter as to whether Mr. Rove was fully forthcoming about the belated discovery of an internal e-mail message that confirmed his conversation with the Time reporter, Matthew Cooper, to whom Mr. Rove had mentioned the C.I.A. officer.

Mr. Fitzgerald no longer seems to be actively examining some of the more incendiary questions involving Mr. Rove.

Let’s put the obligatory disclaimer here: this is a leak, in fact a leak from Rove’s attorney (well, who else could it be?). If the leak is true, though, then we are truly in the land of ‘who cares?’…

Step back with me a moment and review:

At one extreme, PlameGate was about the alleged intentional outing of a covert agent, with all the national security implications thereof. At a lower level, it was about perjury and obstruction of justice (still serious, but rather routine, unfortunately).

Now we’re down to “whether Mr. Rove was fully forthcoming about the belated discovery of an internal e-mail message that confirmed his conversation with the Time reporter, Matthew Cooper, to whom Mr. Rove had mentioned the C.I.A. officer.”

Ahem…

I caught a little flack (deservedly so) for suggesting the other day that the motives of those on the left who were calling for Rove’s head were strictly partisan. Well, I shouldn’t paint with such a broad brush…but come now. If this story is correct, then it’s time to shut up about the role of Karl Rove in a crime that has not been alleged (by any officer of the court, that is) or perjury about an internal e-mail that Karl Rove discovered himself (UPDATE 11/5 12:26 a.m.: Not necessarily…the MinuteMan points out that Rove himself may not have been involved in uncovering the e-mail here) and turned over to the prosecutor.

And it’s no good for Fitzgerald to say ‘Rove remains under investigation’ indefinitely. If he is not going to be charged, considering the international implications, Fitzgerald has an obligation to say so at the earliest opportunity.

And if he isn’t charged with anything at all, and people still continue to call for his head, well, each can judge the partisanship of that for him- or herself…