Fitzgerald to Clear Rove?

Yeah, I know I've been ignoring the whole Plamegate thing for the most part until tonight, but what do you take away from this 11th hour story in the New York Times:

With the clock running out on his investigation, the special counsel in the leak case continued to seek information on Tuesday about Karl Rove's discussions with reporters in the days before a C.I.A. officer's identity was made public, lawyers and others involved in the investigation said.

Three days before the grand jury in the case expires and with the White House in a state of high anxiety, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, appeared still to be trying to determine whether Mr. Rove had been fully forthcoming about his contacts with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Robert D. Novak, the syndicated columnist, in July 2003, they said.

How would you read that?

Digby, of Hullabaloo (according to Memeorandum the first and only blogger commenting on this story at the moment), apparently didn't read anything into that at all. He seemed more intent on trying to furtively establish links dragging in Vice President Cheney in a section future down the page.

But I don't think the Times would bury the lead on this story; they want Rove and they're interpreting the special counsel's last-minute information gathering as tying up loose ends that could lead to an indictment of Rove.

But there is, of course, at least one other explanation for this apparent last-minute flurry of activity: Fitzgerald might be making sure that he is justified in not bringing charges against Karl Rove at all.

If special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has decided not to indict the man that liberal's most hate, he better have his ducks in a row and able to withstand intense scrutiny. This last second fact-checking would appear to be consistent towards that end as well.

Time will tell.