Scooter indicted...for...something (UPDATED)

This from the NYT (hat tip Riehl World View):

Lawyers in the C.I.A. leak case said Thursday that they expected I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, to be indicted on Friday, charged with making false statements to the grand jury. Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but will remain under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said. As a result, they said, the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, was likely to extend the term of the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration on Friday.

I figured Scooter Libby would get nailed with something, and the door has been left open in regards to Karl Rove. Hell, after nearly two years of investigation somebody had to get nailed for something (Fitzgerald might be viewed as wasting time and money if he didn't indict some poor fool). And, of course, the indictments have nothing to do with the Plame affair itself, but rather that Libby withheld information or misleading the Grand Jury (take your pick...the indictment has not officially come down yet as of this time). Of course, the MSM will spin it as a nightmare for the White House. In reality, it will all be forgotten by election time next year. By 2008, people will be saying, "Scooter who?"

Then again, this is a NYT story, so who knows what's really going on. It's still early, so who knows what's really going to happen. Details will be available later today and I'll update on them when I can.

Michelle Malkin is all over it (as usual).

Also check out Tom Maguire at Just One Minute, who has a good roundup of links.

UPDATE 11:53 am: Scooter's been indicted (1 count--Obstruction of justice/ 2--counts perjury/2 counts--making false statements). Hat tip to the Corner. Here's the indictment (PDF file). Also, he has resigned as he said he would (reported on CNN). Here's a comment from the Corner that struck me as funny:

The idea that a Libby indictment would require all three networks to go live in the middle of soaps is bizarre. But more bizarre: when the subject is perjury indictments, is it really putting forth your cleanest expert to interview George Stephanopoulos?

Lots of insightful comments on this at the Corner (especially this one).

Yeah, the MSM is going to milk this one as much as they can. Unfortunately for them, this is going to blow over quickly. Instead of an early Christmas gift for the liberals (indicting Rove), they got coal (a guy nick-named "Scooter" who's name no one will remember this time next year). Expect this kind of bullshit to continue.

UPDATE 3:06 pm: Michelle live blogged the press conference and has more blogger reax.