Rove testifies again and again and again and again -- that's five times, if you're counting

From the Post: "White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove sought to convince a federal grand jury yesterday that he did not provide false statements in the CIA leak case, testifying for more than three hours before leaving a federal courthouse unsure whether he would be indicted, according to a source close to the presidential aide."

Around the blogosphere:

Political Animal is rightly suspicious: "So: did Rove really forget [about his phone conversation with Time's Matt Cooper]? Or did he lie and then correct his testimony only when he knew he was about to get caught?"

Shakespeare's Sister thinks the game's up: "My spider sense is telling me Rove’s about to have his ass handed to him. Ostensibly, this fifth appearance is to allow Rove to clear up lingering questions, but his track record doesn’t lead me (or any other cognizant being, I’ll wager) to believe that he will be totally forthcoming this time, either, since he’s obviously as guilty as sin."

Firedoglake "reconstruct[s] Rove’s history of testimony".

Taylor Marsh sums things up nicely: "What this illustrates is the penchant for the president and his people to shade the truth. Karl knows that the presidency of George W. Bush can't handle the truth. It would be too damaging. Besides his boss has his own problems with getting the truth out. George W. Bush still hasn't told the American people the truth about Iraq, his vice president's energy task force meetings, how the Dubai port deal went down, the NSA illegal spying debacle, the black site secret prisons, and a whole host of other topics. It's taken Karl Rove 5 times, count them, five, to get the truth straight and he's still not done and this is only one issue. It will take the rest of our lives to finally get the fifth and sixth versions of the truth from George W. Bush on all the issues he's fibbed. As for Deadeye Dick, we'll never get the truth out of him."

The Carpetbagger Report offers an intriguing possibility: "On a related note — and I'm really just throwing this out there for discussion sake — Rove was more or less demoted last week, losing his policy coordination responsibilities. The official line was that Rove would shift his attention to the midterm elections, but he was probably going to do that anyway. Is it possible that Rove shed some of his duties because he expects to be indicted?"

See also TalkLeft, Booman Tribune, The Next Hurrah, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Midtopia, and Balloon Juice.