Early Newspaper Coverage on Web Paints Libby Charges As Major Blow for Bush, Despite Rove Escape

By: Joe Strupp Early Web coverage of the indictment announcement Friday afternoon by major newspapers has most spinning the news as a major defeat for President Bush, despite the fact that his key aide, Karl Rove, has thus far escaped a criminal charge.

An analysis on the Chicago Tribune Web site by William Neikirk claimed, "A Libby indictment is the political equivalent of setting off tons of TNT, while any possible charges against Rove, the architect of Bush's two victories, would be the political equivalent of dropping a nuclear weapon. While Friday's results fell short of the administration's worst-case scenarios, they were negative enough to darken political clouds hanging over the White House and to ensure internal debate over President Bush's controversial decision to go to war in Iraq will be aired in public."

In the New York Times' main story posted this afternoon, the paper contends that "The indictment constitutes a body blow to the White House, which has faced political problems on several fronts of late and where Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby have been powerful presences -- Mr. Rove as the White House deputy chief of staff and top political adviser, and Mr. Libby as an important adviser to one of the most powerful vice presidents in American history."

The Los Angeles Times offered a similar brutal assessment in its lead story online, noting "the indictment of Libby shines a new spotlight on White House efforts to defend its flawed rationale for going to war -- the belief that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction -- and the lengths to which it was willing to go to counter dissenting views. It provides a rare public window onto one of the administration's most crucial, but mysterious power centers -- the office of the vice president. While rumored for weeks, the indictment was a stunning conclusion to an investigation that has kept Washington on edge for the better part of two years."

An Associated Press report also cited the indictments as a hit to the president, calling it "a political embarrassment for the president, paving the way for a possible trial renewing the focus on the administration's faulty rationale for going to war against Iraq -- the erroneous assertion that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. It could also mean that Cheney, who prizes secrecy, will be called upon as a witness to explain why the administration launched a campaign against Plame's husband, a critic of the war."

The USA Today Web coverage found some solace for Bush, stating, "The lack of an indictment against Rove is a mixed outcome for the administration. It keeps in place the president's top adviser, the architect of his political machine whose fingerprints can be found on virtually every policy that emerges from the White House." But the same story also observed that, "leaving Rove in legal jeopardy keeps Bush and his team working on problems like the Iraq war, a Supreme Court vacancy and slumping poll ratings beneath a dark cloud of uncertainty."

The Washington Post had the most non-analytical lead story of the major papers, while offering many links to the indictment itself, a transcript of Fitzgerald's press conference, and more.

Later in the day, however, Post Associate Editor Robert Kaiser participated in an online chat in which he, in answer to a question, described this as one of Bush's worst moments in office. "Bush is having a terrible autumn," he wrote online. "Nothing is going well for him that I can see except the John Roberts nomination and the resilient American economy. Iraq is bad; Miers was a fiasco; this is grim and could get grimmer; a less-than-40% approval rating for a sitting president is extremely rare and very ominous; DeLay's and Frist's troubles are more bad news -- it just goes on and on."

Speaking about the indictments, he later noted that "the spinners will spin, but the news is bad. Sure it would have been worse, or it will be worse, if Rove were indicted too, not least because Bush would then lose his right arm. That's a comfort, perhaps, for the president, but it's unlikely to make him dance a jig."

The Post 's Fred Barbash also offered a legal analysis of the charges against Libby. Another story explained that Valerie Plame was now likely to leave the CIA. At his Post blog, Joel Achenbach took a good news/bad news approach to the aftermath, listing as "good news" for the White House the following:

--Good News: No one has been charged with a war crime.

--Good News: The man who is probably the single most powerful staffer is doing backflips and scheduling a celebratory feast tonight at The Palm, complete with the ritual sacrifice of a goat.

--Good News: Ace witness for the prosecution is Judy Miller.