A Theory Like Gravity or Evolution

Conspiracy theory:

Finally we've got some names. The White House Iraq Group (WHIG) was in charge of "fixing the facts and the intelligence around the policy." The ringleaders are Hughes, Libby, Card, Matalin, Wilkinson, and, of course, Rove.

Joe Wilson saw it firsthand awhile back, but it's because Valerie Plame was their target. At the beginning of the Administration, Wilson was a Colin Powell State Department Republican, too. He's seen the WHIGs from both sides.

Billmon sees the diversion and the ramifications of the current crisis to the WHIG.

...if Rove isn't indicted, then the game is over -- even if a few low-level "bad apples" have to take a fall. Rove will be damaged goods, but he'll be damaged goods that still have their own office in the West Wing.

Nothing the Reptiles say about the Wilsons, and nothing we say in their defense, is going to change that. What's more, Left Blogostan doesn't have nearly enough collective firepower to protect them. Joe Biden and the Republocrats aren't even going to try. So it's really up to the corporate press to decide whether it will let itself be used, once again, as Rove's political vegomatic (It slices! dices! grates! etc.)

In the end, it probably will -- even if some of the cutting edges on the vegomatic are a little pissed right now at the shoddy treatment they've been getting. The institutional pressures are just too strong...

Since the main$tream media is owned by the same robber barons that own Bu$hCo, there may be some noise to sell the corporate product about the accusations, but the drama of it all as Patriot Rove emerges Righteous will sell nicely too.