Is This Anything?

So Lawrence O'Donnell has revealed that it was Karl Rove who outed Valerie Plame. Maybe I'm just in a mood at the moment, but I can't find it within myself to work up much excitement about this, either. Although it should be, I've got a feeling that we'll find out that, no, this isn't anything. We already had yesterday's Wall Street Journal editorial downplaying the investigation itself. Once this new information really hits (as in this Newsweek article), we'll get a full-on right-wing press to negate the significance of the new information, including attacking the reputation of the Republican special prosecutor. The Democrats may complain, but they'll be dismissed as just obstructionist anyway. After we have a little while of shouting, watch out for Bush to pardon Rove with relative impunity. (He can't wait this long, but if he held out until Christmas Eve, we'd get a nice echo of his father pardoning Cap Weinberger and other Iran-Contra figures on Christmas Eve 1992, less than a month before the end of his term.)