Scrooge and Tiny Tim Russert

Billmon has a piece today where he analyzes John Dean's contention that Fitzmas will be a big letdown. (Fitzmas is, for those of you who are not blogspheroholics, would be the morning after the great number of brightly wrapped indictments Special Counsel Fitgerald is supposed to hand down this week including, we had hoped, Libby, Rove and unindicted co-conspirator Cheney. My own opinion is that Tim Russert was the original source of the "leak.")

In addition to a large amount of pertinent stuff on the possibility of indicting Cheney or Bush, Dean says about Fitzgerald:

First, he could close down his Washington office; return to his work in Chicago, where he serves as the U.S. Attorney; and simply issue a statement that his investigation has ended. (He has no authority to write a report, for the information he has obtained is subject to Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and thus is secret).

Second, he could extend the grand jury for whatever time he needs to complete his investigation.

And third, he could issue one or more indictments.

Pretty clearly Dean thinks that in the win-place-show categories, Fitzmas comes up wanting. Damn! Dean raises the spectre always present in Washington (and London, and Moscow, etc. etc.) that such indictments would compromise National Security. Of course!

I had a concern about such high level indictments a few days ago (Oct. 15):

We have been kept on tenter hooks and any information that we obtain at this point will be anticlimactic, I can guarantee it. What can Fitzgerald, a good Republican, do? If he indicts Rove and Libby with Cheney as a co-conspirator, we will be forced into a constitutional crisis because, as pointed out before, we are not a parliamentary democracy. We can't remove the government except every four years and we, the dumb idiots that we are, passed up the chance in 2004. Oh, that we were such a government and the will of the people could be more rapidly effected. If these indictments come down, I am not sure we can make it to 2008.

Mr. Fitzgerald, please do not be a Scrooge, you will hear chains rattling for the rest of your life and beyond if you don't do the right thing. We made it through Watergate. Let us try this one too.