Now that indictments are about to be handed down, let me take this opportunity to predict yet another of those epic partisan flip flops that so afflict our political system. Here are my predictions.
1. No one will be indicted for actually outing Plame, but one or more people, including Rove, Libby or both, will be indicted for perjury and/or obstruction of justice. At that point, the leadership of the two parties will meet on the steps of Capitol Hill and they will exchange the scripts they worked from back in the late 90s.
2. The White House and partisan Republicans will immediately call this a “witch hunt” that had to keep going until they found something. They’ll say that no crime was ever proven and that the perjury and obstruction charges are just technicalities and the whole thing was politically motivated in the first place. Just like the Democrats said about Ken Starr.
3. Partisan Democrats will immediately call this an incredible scandal and will call for heads to roll. They will make speeches that sound exactly like the speeches that Republicans made in the late 1990s – “It’s not what they did, it’s that they lied about it.” They may even call for congressional hearings. Just like Republicans said about Bill Clinton.
4. I also predict, though, that there will be no serious movement for impeachment this time. Not because the Democrats wouldn’t love to do it, but just because they know they don’t have the votes to get it done in Congress.
Let the games begin!