The White House wanted us to believe that Karl Rove was demoted so he could spend more time cooking up political dirty tricks for this year’s congressional elections (because bombing Iran in October to create a rally-’round-Dear-Leader surge for the GOP in November may not be enough). Turns out that before he was reassigned last week Rove — and his new boss, Josh Bolten — knew he was going to be called back before the CIA Leak grand jury for fifth time to testify about White House efforts to smear Amb. Joe Wilson and reveal the secret identity of his wife:

A lawyer with knowledge of the case said that Mr. Rove had known for more than a month that he was likely to make another appearance before the grand jury, and that he had known since last fall that he would be subject to further questions from Mr. Fitzgerald before the prosecutor completed his inquiry.