Where's Karl?

John at Americablog has this tempting little morsel of gossip:

I just talked to a source who told me that Karl Rove has been missing from a number of recent White House presidential events - events that he has ALWAYS attended in the past. For example, Rove was absent from yesterday's presidential press conference to promote Harriet Miers. These are the kind of events Rove ALWAYS attends, I'm told, yet of late he's been MIA each and every time.

My source tells me that the scuttlebutt around town is that the White House knows something bad is coming, in terms of Karl getting indicted, and they're already trying to distance him from the president.

Yes, I know: It ain't over until it's over. The clout--to say nothing of the chutzpah--of these guys frees them from moral and legal limits the rest of us might have to face. A lot of things can still happen. Yada yada yada.

Still.

Be honest, now. Isn't it fun to think that we might (just might . . . maybe . . . possibly) be on the verge of Joe Wilson's dream becoming a reality: seeing Karl Rove being frog-marched out of the White House by DC's finest?

If nothing else, this might help explain why the Harriet Miers nomination has been such a debacle (there's been so much coverage I'm not going to bother linking; just Google her name and duck): Perhaps Karl has other things competing for his attention right now, leaving Junior to operate more nearly on autopilot than normal.

This makes more sense to me than the "Super Genius" theory--to which I've never been a subscriber anyway. But some observers--see, for example, here, here, here, and even here--have toyed with the idea that the embarrassment that has been the Miers nomination might somehow be part of some clever Secret Master Plan (although it's tough to find people who agree on what that plan might be).

But let's not lose sight of another possible explanation: The Miers nomination could be one of the odder mistakes of an administration that is--gradually at first, but picking up speed daily--coming apart at the seams.

[Update: The DC rumor mill right now predicts 22 indictments are about to come down in the Plame case. That's a whole lotta indictments.]