WASHINGTON — Top Republicans exulted Tuesday at the news that Karl Rove had escaped a criminal charge.
But even without an indictment of President Bush's chief political advisor, the 3-year-old CIA leak investigation has dealt serious political damage to the president and some of his most trusted associates and friends. The White House still must try to overcome that damage as Republicans strive to retain control of Congress in the November elections.
Democrats on Tuesday said they would do all they could to keep alive the larger issues of the case, the most significant investigation to date into the workings of the Bush White House. Lacking a Rove indictment, they will attempt to focus public attention on the revelations that Rove and former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby -- and even Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney -- were involved in various decisions to leak information aimed at discrediting a critic of the Iraq war.
"The notion of the leak and the overall White House involvement, that ain't over," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the Democratic committee that sets strategy for House races. "Obviously, we know that 'Scooter' Libby is not Karl Rove. But you have the vice president of the United States involved, or at least his office was involved."
Another leading Democrat, Rep. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles, said that Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's decision not to indict Rove should trigger a congressional investigation into whether the top White House aide mishandled classified information when he discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame with a reporter.
Waxman argued that although Fitzgerald conducted a "narrow" criminal investigation, Congress should examine the broader issue of whether Rove deserved to keep his high-level security clearance.
But the Democrats' aggressive talk has raised a pivotal question: Does the lack of a much-anticipated indictment of the country's most important Republican strategist mean that a bomb floating over GOP-led Washington has fizzled? Or is there still political meaning to an investigation that has kept the White House and its enemies in suspense since Plame's name was leaked three years ago?
Leading Republicans moved quickly Tuesday to turn the case back on Democrats, arguing that critics' earlier calls for Rove to be fired or lose his clearance were unfair. The Republican National Committee circulated quotes from Democratic lawmakers attacking Rove under the headline of "Wrong Again: Prejudging Karl Rove Is Latest Example of Democrats' Overheated Rhetoric and False Statements."
