Do we really have to wait for a court verdict on Rove?

Topic: Bush Karl Rove Valerie Plame

Bush has flip-flopped on the whole Valerie Plame case, in order to keep Rove around just a little longer:

Bush said in June 2004 that he would fire anyone in his administration shown to have leaked information that exposed the identity of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. On Monday, however, he added the qualifier that it would have be shown that a crime was committed.

I understand that he would be a little nervous about losing his brain "Turdblossom", but honestly, how much worse could Bush be doing? Record deficits, low employment, his invasion of Iraq leading to a possible civil war there, abysmal poll numbers, and outright contempt from much of the world — "stay the course" and "a leader must not waver" don't seem very comforting in the face of that, do they?