Is the Mainstream Media beginning to enter "White House Scandal" mode?

The Plame affair started out with an investigation of who told Bob Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA officer in order to attack her husband. It has been an interesting story, and exposes the nasty unscrupulous nature of the prime individual, Karl Rove, but the law that covers that behavior is difficult to violate. Fitzgerald's investigation probably should have been wrapped up a year ago. The initial leak did not threaten Bush's Presidency. But the investigation itself appears to have brought to life new threats to the White House. The Dan Froomkin of Washington Post writes the story today.

...now Fitzgerald's investigation appears to have turned its focus to discrepancies in the testimony of White House senior adviser Karl Rove and vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Fitzgerald may be trying to determine whether evidence exists to bring perjury or obstruction of justice charges.

And that raises the issue of what -- if anything -- Rove and Libby told Bush and Cheney about their roles.

So does that mean Fitzgerald might call Bush and Cheney to testify before the grand jury -- under oath? Might he even have done so already? We have no idea, of course, because the White House isn't saying anything at all about the investigation anymore.

Either way, the CIA leak story is taking on more and more of the trappings of the classic Washington political scandal -- the saving grace for Bush being that his party controls Congress, and that thus far, Republicans have closed ranks behind him.

This explains the manner in which the entire Republican Party has closed ranks to support Karl Rove and try to downplay how illegal the behavior of the White House was.

It may be too late for the Republicans to get the story off the front pages of newspapers, however. It already looks like a classic Washington scandal.