A Pilgrim’s Digression

In my post on Sunday, When the ship comes in, I mentioned that we should not get our hopes too high that Bush Administration officials are going to be indicted in the Plame Name Leak investigation. The following quote from today’s Washington Post should make us step back even further from the edge of unfounded exuberance:

Grand Jury Hears Summary of Case On CIA Leak Probe

But after grand jurors left the federal courthouse before noon yesterday, it was unclear whether Fitzgerald had spelled out the criminal charges he might ask them to consider, or whether he had asked them to vote on any proposed indictments. Fitzgerald’s legal team did not present the results of a grand jury vote to the court yesterday, which he is required to do within days of such a vote.

Increasingly, I don’t believe there are going to be any indictments. I have little evidence to support that belief, except my innate pessimism. However, I feel like the media has driven expectations of indictments, resignations, and scandal too high, so that whatever happens tomorrow is almost certainly going to be a disappointment. Anything short of the indictment of Cheney is going to be a non-story.

I lived through the Clinton years as a Republican, so I know how this works: you think the lawyers have finally caught up with the bastards, but then they slip the noose. That’s just the facts of life in Washington.

That said, if I’m wrong and some big indictments do come down tomorrow, I’ll be more than happy to eat crow. Accompanied by a well-baked potato, crow ain’t half bad.