I'll delete this if it's already up, but I didn't see it.
From the just released AP story:
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday that he will withhold judgment about top aide Karl Rove's involvement in leaking the identity of a CIA agent until a federal criminal investigation into the matter is complete.
"This is a serious investigation," Bush said at the end of a meeting with his Cabinet, with Rove sitting just behind him. "I will be more than happy to comment on this matter once this investigation is complete.
"I also will not prejudge the investigation based on media reports," he said, when asked whether Rove acted improperly in discussing CIA officer Valerie Plame with a reporter.
But of course their couldn't be an article, even one quoting the President directly, without a few "unnamed White House officials." [see below the flip]
Bush's statement was a surprise for some White House advisers and senior Republicans who had expected the president to deliver a vote of confidence for Rove, his deputy chief of staff. Two Bush advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was poised to speak for himself at the Cabinet meeting, said shortly before his remarks that the president intended to signal his support of Rove -- without prejudging the merits of the case -- during that picture-taking session. Indeed, they said, he was prepared to do so a day earlier but the question was not posed in the question-and-answer session Tuesday.
So what's going on here? Why does Bush, with Rove sitting just behind him, refuse to say, as we might expect, I have every confidence in Karl, etc.?
Hypothesis one is that they've decided to keep Bush away from the spin job and are going to let Mehlman and his happy band of character assassins defame Joe and Valerie Wilson, with the able assistance of their friends in the media.
Hypothesis two, which in no way contradicts hypothesis one, is that Karl really does have some problems and they don't want Bush making any more statements about his unconditional support and unabated confidence when they suspect Rove is going to be indicted. They have the recent and unfamiliar experience of the media actually remembering what Bush said two years ago about "taking care" of the leaker, and they don't want any more sound clips for potential future use.
Hypothesis three, four, and five I leave up to the able commenters here at Kos ...
-- Stu