It has been a strange week at the Scooter Libby perjury trial. First, his defense team surprises even the most well-informed Washington insiders by showing their hand and revealing that Libby will blame the White House for the Valerie Plame leak and the attempted cover-up. Today, Karl Rove was subpoenaed in the case, meaning he could have to give up some very embarrassing information about the White House and Bush's inner circle.

Like no other presidency in this country's history, the Bush administration has tried to shield itself of any serious allegations by hiding behind the "national security curtain". They won't be able to do that in this case, and they CAN blame Bill Clinton for it. The precedent for a president and his staff being forced to testify in civil and criminal cases while the president is still in office was set during the Clinton years, when Ken Starr forced Clinton to give up embarrassing information. Clinton's lawyers tried to stop the prosecution, or at least delay it, but the justice system was not having any of it. Bush's lawyers might as well not even try in this case.

Scooter Libby is facing possible prison time for perjury in what was clearly a cover-up of Plamegate. The question now is who called for that cover-up. It's obvious that Libby did not fall on that sword on his own volition, and it seems unlikely that Dick Cheney asked one of his own men to do such a thing, so the suspicion falls back on the White House. We know Bush doesn't really call the shots, which leads us right to Karl Rove, his chief of staff. It may sound like a convoluted chain, but I've got a feeling the prosecution, led by Patrick Fitzgerald, has some very key evidence that will bring it all together. The only thing we don't know is who will fall as a result.

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