KARL ROVE NOT A TARGET -- YET

More than four hours before the grand jury for President Bush's mastermind. The New York Times captured Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, uttering a classic bit of nothing:

"The special counsel has not advised Mr. Rove that he is a target of the investigation and affirmed that he has made no decision concerning charges."

Luskin added, helpfully, that Rove appeared voluntarily, once the prosecutor requested his presence. Hey, it was that or a subpoena.

Leaky lawyers speculate that Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, hit Rove with prior inconsistencies from his three previous grand-jury appearances -- like his failure to mention his leak to Time reporter Matt Cooper. The Washington Post reports that Fitzgerald "could find a way to bring charges in the next two weeks."

What charges? Perjury, most likely:

Whoever under oath (or in any declaration, certificate, verification, or statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under section 1746 of title 28, United States Code) in any proceeding before or ancillary to any court or grand jury of the United States knowingly makes any false material declaration or makes or uses any other information, including any book, paper, document, record, recording, or other material, knowing the same to contain any false material declaration, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both ...

In any prosecution under this section, the falsity of a declaration set forth in the indictment or information shall be established sufficient for conviction by proof that the defendant while under oath made irreconcilably contradictory declarations material to the point in question in any proceeding before or ancillary to any court or grand jury. It shall be a defense to an indictment or information made pursuant to the first sentence of this subsection that the defendant at the time he made each declaration believed the declaration was true ...

Where, in the same continuous court or grand jury proceeding in which a declaration is made, the person making the declaration admits such declaration to be false, such admission shall bar prosecution under this section if, at the time the admission is made, the declaration has not substantially affected the proceeding, or it has not become manifest that such falsity has been or will be exposed.

Rove could claim he didn't commit perjury when he didn't mention the leak to Cooper because he'd forgotten all about it. But that's so unlike Rove, political Poindexter of his generation.