It was a veritable champagne popping occasion at the Weekly Standard after Robert Luskin, lawyer to Karl Rove in the continuing CIA Leak Case, announced last Tuesday that that he had been told by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that his client will not be charged.  

The Weekly Standard's editor, Fred Barnes, could not contain his glee in stating that Rove's "vindication" was a blow to Democrats in the 2006 campaign and welcome news to the White House in particular and Republicans in general.

Barnes was correct as far as the political spin is concerned arising from Luskin's announcement, and politics is the area of the right wing Republican journalistic partisan's concern, which gives him something in common with Rove.  

If there is one area where Karl Rove has made himself abundantly clear, it is in the all-important area of spin control and the valued place it holds in a Cheney-Bush political strategy context.

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post is reporting that Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, "was stunned...when journalists started calling to ask about an online report that he had spent half the day at his law office, negotiating with Patrick Fitzgerald -- and that the special prosecutor had secretly obtained an indictment of Rove."

Instead of Luskin simply affirming or denying the report, Luskin was prepared to assassinate the messenger:

The "claim that President Bush's top political strategist had been indicted in the CIA leak investigation was written by a journalist who has battled drug addiction and mental illness and been convicted of grand larceny. That didn't stop more than 35 reporters -- from all the major newspapers, networks and newsmagazines -- from calling Luskin or Rove's spokesman, Mark Corallo, to check it out."

Seems Luskin did his homework before making his statement - and went a little bit overboard for a representative of an administration that has likely used such onine media outlets to their advantage in the past.

Perhaps Jason Leopold came a little closer to the truth that Luskin have would liked.

The real story behind Rove's demotion yesterday was not that he was "spread too thin" or that he needs to "focus on the midterms," as the traditional media universally reported.  The real story is that there remains a substantial chance that Rove will be indicted by Fitzgerald in the Plamegate investgation, and the White House needs to put as much distance between Bush and Rove as possible before that event occurs.

In a breaking article today, reporter Jason Leopold managed to get Rove lawyer Robert Luskin on the record confirming that a Rove indictment remains a strong possibility: