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MSNBC, Chris Matthews, and other MSM outlets have been having way too much fun at the expense of Karl Rove and others enmeshed in the mess brought on by the lies of former ambassador Joe Wilson.

On Friday, "Hardball" featured a breathless report about the possible huge shakeups at the White House were Rove and others forced to step aside to clear their good names. But in reality, Rove and others have been looking for a major shakeup before much of what is spinning out right now began to really take shape.

"There has been a sense now for more than six weeks that things have hit a wall," says an outside consultant who works with the White House. "The Roberts nomination put a lot of those thoughts on the backburner, but Rove has studied enough history to understand the pitfalls of a second-term President, and many of them are unavoidable. I think he believed some staff rollover would help with some of that."

What a number of MSM reporters miss is that there was very little turnover in White House and senior administration staff after the 2004 election cycle. In fact, if there was job shifting, it was taking place between Cabinet-level departments, not inside the White House and the Old Executive Office Building. "People we thought might leave didn't leave," says a White House source. "And those who did leave usually left for similar or better jobs with people like Condi [Rice] or Alberto [Gonzales]. It really is time for some changes. We still have three years to go. We have things to do."