Great moments in political prognostication, from the May 8 edition of MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”
David Shuster: "Well, Karl Rove's legal team has told me that they expect that a decision will come sometime in the next two weeks. And I am convinced that Karl Rove will, in fact, be indicted. And there are a couple of reasons why.
"First of all, you don't put somebody in front of a grand jury at the end of an investigation, or for the fifth time, as Karl Rove testified a couple -- a week and a half ago, unless you feel that`s your only chance of avoiding indictment. So, in other words, the burden starts with Karl Rove to stop the charges."
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Shuster continued: "Secondly, it's now been 13 days since Rove testified. After testifying for three and a half hours, prosecutors refused to give him any indication that he was clear. He has not gotten any indication since then, and the lawyers that I`ve spoken with outside of this case say that if Rove had gotten himself out of the jam, he would have heard something by now.
"And then the third issue is one we`ve talked about before, and that is, in the Scooter Libby indictment, Karl Rove was identified as Official A. It`s the term that prosecutors use when they try to get around restrictions on naming somebody in an indictment.
"We`ve looked through the records of Patrick Fitzgerald from when he was prosecuting cases in New York, and from when he`s been U.S. attorney in Chicago. And in every single investigation, whenever Fitzgerald has identified somebody as Official A, that person eventually gets indicted themselves, in every single investigation.
"Will Karl Rove defy history in this particular case? I suppose anything is possible when you`re dealing with a White House official. But the lawyers that I`ve been speaking with, who know this stuff, say, Don`t bet on Karl Rove getting out of this."
Official transcript from Nexis. For a sampling of the left-wing giddiness that ensued, click here.
