Indictment Vigil In D.C.

Grand Jury On CIA Leak May Soon Be Ready To Act

(CBS/AP)  Indictments of one or more of President Bush's top advisers in the CIA leak investigation could come this week or even not at all, CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports.

But the White House is acting like it's business as usual.

When asked by reporters Thursday how he's dealing with the investigation, Mr. Bush said, "There's some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining. But the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."

But the background noise has only gotten louder as the grand jury winds up its investigation over who told reporters that the wife of Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson worked for the CIA.

The White House maintains Mr. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were not involved. Sources close to the case say neither man knows if he's about to be indicted.

Still, the White House maintains it's going about business as usual.

"I was in the Nixon White House during Watergate, and we pretended that we were all about business as usual. And we had a president who was talking to the portraits. It was not business as usual, but you have to say it," former presidential adviser David Gergen told CBS News' The Early Show.

"It will be a significant blow to a White House that's already in freefall politically," Gergen, a veteran of Republican and Democratic administrations, said of any possible indictments.

"This is a presidency that has almost collapsed. But if Karl Rove were indicted, that would be like George W. Bush losing his right arm at a time when he needs every limb he's got to climb out of the hole he's in and to rebuild his presidency."

The conclusion of prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's two-year investigation, expected within days, bears down on the White House amid other troubles.

Mr. Bush's pick of White House counsel Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court disappointed many of his longtime conservative allies and puzzled some Republicans in Congress. Also, the White House is still reeling from criticism of its slow reaction to the misery caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Further complicating Mr. Bush's plans are investigations of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, on conspiracy and money-laundering charges in Texas, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist for stock transactions.

Weary of the CIA investigation and the uncertainty it has brought, presidential aides say they just wish it would end. Officials say they don't talk about the investigation or its outcome at meetings because they don't want to give the appearance of colluding against Fitzgerald. They acknowledge there is an expectation that if any White House official is indicted, he will resign.

Indeed, officials have been speculating about who would move in to replace Rove or Libby if they were forced out. The consulting firm jointly headed by one possible Rove replacement, GOP strategist Ed Gillespie, has begun considering how Gillespie's clients might be reassigned if he were tapped for a White House assignment and how to handle the other ramifications of a White House move.

Others close to the White House defend it as a place filled with professionals who are getting on with the business of governing amid the distractions. Veteran Republican strategist Charles Black said Rove has taken some time away to prepare for grand jury testimony but otherwise has been as engaged as ever on issues ranging from spending cuts to Miers.

"I haven't noticed, for the most part, anything unusual going on," Black said.