Another Investigation That Will Accomplish Nothing

A lot of people are very excited today about news that the Office of Special Counsel, a federal investigative unit, will be "launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operations that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove ... [and] will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities."

I think that this is a very important story and do plan to follow it, but I am not optimistic about anything substantive coming from this, no matter much damning evidence piles up along the way.

Karl Rove's hands have been in every major Republican scandal of the Bush era from the 'black baby' attacks on John McCain in the 2000 primary to the Abramoff web to the U.S. Attorney purge and everything in between. But, as best exemplified by Plamegate where Scooter Libby went down while Rove went free, he escapes even the most minor accountability.

Karl Rove is among the oldest cockroaches of Republican politics; he'll outlive us all.

History will be the only real judge people like him will ever face.