A TRIPLE WHAMMY FOR THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION?

1) Harriet Miers' withdrawal of her name from nomination to the United States Supreme Court. A bit surprising, but probably the best she could do under the circumstances. The Senate simply did not have the votes to confirm, even if she had gone through the confirmation process. Many Democrats didn't believe she was qualified and were afraid she would simply be a puppet for Dubya, while a number of Republicans believed she was not conservative enough (read: Robert Bork-enough)

2) The Toledo Blade reported Thursday: A federal grand jury indicted Tom Noe, the former Toledo area coin dealer who is also at the centre of a state investment scandal, with illegally laundering money into President Bush's re-election campaign.

“He did so, according to the indictment, in order to fulfill his pledge to raise $50,000 for a Bush-Cheney fund-raiser held in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 30, 2003,” Gregory White, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced at an afternoon news conference.

The two other counts were for conspiracy and filing false statements.

3) And, of course, we are all anxiously awaiting the announcement from the grand jury which has been investigating the CIA leak issue. My guess is that if there are any indictments handed down, it will be for Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby for charges such as perjury and obstruction of justice.

I honestly don't believe that there will be any indictments on the main reason for the grand jury, the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald would have to prove "beyone a shadow of a doubt" that Rove, Libby, or Vice President Dick Chaney (who reportedly told Libby) knew of her undercover status and deliberately outed her...something that is quite difficult, at best, to do. Rove and Libby will simply be "taking one for the team".