See agrarianlady’s post above, #3. Don’t see how you get around that one.
1. Obviously criminal. Impeachment hearings and possible impeachment
2. Impeached but not removed from office. Doesn't matter. Damage is done. 2012 is shot for all the Dems and they will REVOLT against him to save their own political life.
3. Usher in Hillary Clinton for the 2012 nomination. If she resigns before 2011, this is an almost guaranteed happening.
Of course, you just know Obama will claim racism. And if he does, AND he is removed from office, I predict there will be race riots in every major city in America.
Let the Dems implode. And let 2012 be an across the board sweep by the GOP.
What to look for this summer: high profile Dems jumping off the Obama boat. When members of his own party start turning on him in a bad way, its the beginning of the end.
Well, to play defense attorney for a moment (and to predict what will probably be the WH line in the coming days, unless they just decide to through this Massina under the bus), the government still hasn't proven quid pro quo. The defense will probably assert that it was Romanoff that inquired about his "alternatives", and Messina volunteered that these were positions that were vacant that Romanoff could apply.
Would a jury buy it? It depends what else the prosecution offered up, but this email doesn't help the defense, at all.
As a practical political matter, the real result of this email is it becomes VERY difficult for Holder to not appoint a special counsel, in much the same way has Kennedy was appointed in the Valerie Pflame fiasco. How he doesn't appoint someone now, even if Messina throws himself on the grenade, is a mystery.