Marvin Kalb, senior fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, has an excellent take on RoveGate in the Financial Times, in which he brings the lessons of Watergate to the White House.

The investigation appears now to be heading towards rapid conclusion. If the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, finds that either Mr Rove or Mr Libby or both violated the law, they would face criminal charges, and the Bush administration would find itself enmeshed in a scandal of dimensions that are already being compared to the Nixon-era Watergate scandal.

....Much is still not known about Mr Fitzgerald’s investigation – he has insisted on absolute secrecy – but what is known suggests that the Bush administration is engaged in a two-front war: one to cover up its blunders in the lead-up to the Iraq war based on the mistaken assumption that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed “weapons of mass destruction”, and the other to protect the leaker. The two fronts are now unmistakeably linked.

Arianna's latest piece on Judith Miller is up - she says New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, a staunch defender of Miller, is angry at Bill Kovac, who has been critical of her. Arianna wonders, "has the Times learned any lessons from the Howell Raines reign?"

Anonymous Liberal lays out a case for charging Karl Rove with obstruction of justice (second paragraph) instead of perjury. Personally, I think a false statement charge under 18 U.S.C. 1001 would be easier to prove, but AL makes a good argument.

Also, if the Government charged and proved a false statement charge, it could get a bump under the guidelines for obstruction of justice, without ever having to charge or convict Rove of the actual crime of obstruction.

In any event, Anonymous Liberal's post is well worth a read.

Brand new from Murray Waas:

The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman John Conyers, of Michigan, and Congressman Maurice Hinchey, of New York, will tomorrow formally request that the Inspector General of the Justice Department, Glenn A. Fine, investigate whether then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft "violated explicit rules on conflicts of interest when he failed to recuse himself from, and in fact was briefed on, the CIA name leak investigation despite his personal connection to Karl Rove, a person of interest to investigators."

Murray has several quotes from the letter. Background from Murray here and TalkLeft, via Murray, here.

Timing is important. Yesterday, the New York Times ran an editorial supporting jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller. As if arguing to the Judge, the paper declared that Miller should be freed, because if she hasn't talked by now, she isn't going to talk. Under the civil contempt statute, the Judge may release an imprisoned contemnor if satisfied that the person won't talk, no matter what.

Judith Miller's lawyers have not filed a motion seeking her release. Miller attorney Floyd Abrams appeared on CNN's Lou Dobb's show yesterday. He denied that Miller was acting out of self-interest or for any reason other than her principled stand that journalists' sources must be protected.

At Huffington Post today, Arianna takes a look at the New York Times handbook on ethical standards (pdf) for its reporters. She writes:

This just in from Arianna...a trusted source tells her that John Bolton recently visited NYT reporter Judith Miller in jail.

I wonder if Fitzgerald will now subpoena Bolton to find out what they talked about. Or if the Alexandria Detention Center monitors conversations during jail visits.

Upddate: Murray has more over at his blog, Whatever Already, including this very important news:

What has not been previously reported until now (a blog breaks news!?), is that not only could Rove not remember the name of the journalist who purportedly might have told him of Plame's CIA employment, but he also claimed to remember virtually nothing about the circumstances of the purported conversation. He could not even recall whether the conversation took place on the phone or in person.

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Original Post: 8/14 6:20 pm

Investigative journalist Murray Waas who has broken some of the biggest stories in RoveGate has a new article up at the Village Voice.

To paraphrase:

• Federal investigators believed Karl Rove fibbed during one of his first interviews on the Valerie Plame leak. He didn't tell them about talking to Time Reporter Matthew Cooper. They also doubted his claim that he had learned about Plame's identity from a journalist.

• Despite concerns over former Attorney General John Ashcroft's close personal ties to Karl Rove, Ashcroft got briefings on the investigation. Members of the Justice Department believed Ashcroft should recuse himself because of his ties to Rove. Eventually he did and Comey then appointed Fitzgerald to lead the investigation. But the Justice Department has never explained its reasons for Ashcroft's recusal.

With James Comey's departure today from the Justice Department, some wondered who would inherit his oversight of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. Comey himself made the designation today before he left...it will be David Margolis, who has been a Justice Department lawyer for 40 years.

Margolis, whose title is associate deputy attorney general, is taking the place of Deputy Attorney General James Comey, whose last day of work was Friday. Comey will be Lockheed Martin's new general counsel.

Comey made the designation of Margolis. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has stepped aside from the probe because he was White House counsel when Valerie Plame's name was leaked in 2003 and he has testified to the grand jury investigating the unauthorized disclosure.

Comey gave broad discretion to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago when he was appointed to investigate the leak in December 2003. Margolis is not expected to alter Fitzgerald's mandate in what are likely to be the final months of his investigation. The grand jury ends its term in October.

Think Progress put a great chart up today outlining all the characters in RoveGate, with links to news sources on each point. Excellent.

Walter Pincus has a new article in the Washington Post trying to connect the inconsistent dots about who selected Joseph Wilson for the Niger mission in 2002 - was it at Valerie Plame's suggestion or at the direction of higher ups at the CIA's Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division (CPD.)

The White House officials speaking with reporters in the days between June 6, 2003, when Wilson's op-ed appeared in the Times, and June 14, 2003, when Bob Novak's column came out, tell the same story: Valerie Plame suggested Wilson for the job. The CIA officials tell it differently.

I've been tracking potential criminal exposure in RoveGate, but there's more to the story, particularly for those interested in the media aspect. Follow the links:

• Digby
• Fire Dog Lake
• The Next Hurrah

And don't forget Arianna, who's been on this aspect for a while.

Murray Waas writes that Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and Louise Slaughter of New York, the ranking Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, have written Lewis Libby, Cheney's Chief of Staff, and asked him to provide jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller with a "personalized waiver."

I think this whole business about "personalized waivers" is bunk. A red herring. Judith Miller has said she doesn't trust Fitzgerald. Where's her assurance that if she shows up to talk about Libby, he won't then ask her about other sources, as he did with Matt Cooper?

Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, has told the New York Times that Libby's original waiver covered all New York Times reporters. The notion of "personalized waivers" started with Matthew Cooper and Karl Rove. Cooper didn't get any "personalized waiver" - he got a letter from Rove's attorney reaffirming that Rove's original waiver included him.

In court shortly after 2, he [Cooper] told Judge Thomas F. Hogan of the Federal District Court in Washington that he had received "an express personal release from my source." That statement surprised Mr. Luskin, Mr. Rove's lawyer. Mr. Luskin said he had only reaffirmed the blanket waiver, in response to a request from Mr. Fitzgerald.