Leak Indictments This Week?

Washington is on pins and needles waiting to see if two key White House officials will be indicted in the CIA leak scandal.

Lawyers in the case said they expect indictments before the end of the week and there's also a consensus, even among Republicans, that if any of the president's senior aides are indicted they'll have to step down.

"I do think that's appropriate… if they're in the midst of an indictment," Sen. George Allen, R-Va., said Sunday.

Because the president's Justice Department couldn't very well investigate the president's staff, it named Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, to do the job.

"He's an outside-the-beltway figure and has a national reputation for being a good prosecutor, very thorough person, very bright person, someone who isn't going to get overwhelmed by the cameras," said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen.

"In that sense, he's a perfect match for this sort of a case."

Fitzgerald has turned out to be more thorough than just about anyone has anticipated. He's focused on two of the president's highest profile aides, Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, both of whom talked to reporters about the Valerie Plame case and her husband Joseph Wilson.

Libby is Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and his national security adviser. A little known but key analyst and confidante, and a major proponent of the war in Iraq, Libby was reportedly enraged by Valerie Plame's husband's criticism of the war. Libby's testimony to the grand jury about what he said and when may be at odds with that of some reporters.

Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, is by far Mr. Bush's most influential staffer.

"He's a guy who a decade ago, here in Austin, 15 years ago, in fact, plotted the planning for George Bush's gubernatorial race and said, 'I can make him president of the United States,'" said Wayne Slater, author of "Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush."

And if Rove has to resign because of an indictment?

"The absence of Rove would create a situation sort of like Paul McCartney without John Lennon. The music will be different," said Slater.

Rove and Libby are not the only administration officials who face possible legal trouble, but they are the ones, who, if they were indicted would be the most missed at a time when the president has deepening political problems.

Amy Walter, of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report told

"He needs something to be able to get himself out of these political doldrums. This certainly is not going to help."