Unlike elections, smearing Fitz will not affect Grand Jury or indictment. [View All]

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

However, I think one reason to do it is to influence what the political effect of the indictments, and the Republican response to them, is.

For instance, what if Rove and Libby are indicted, and Bush decides to issue pardons to them. The effect of minimizing the charges and demonizing the prosecution might be to allow him to get away with doing this without he or the Republican Party suffering the consequences of such an action as Gerald Ford did for issuing preemptive and retroactive pardon to Nixon.