Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh:
CIA leak: Sources point to Rove-Libby contacts
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby discussed their contacts with reporters about an undercover CIA officer in the days before her identity was published, the first known intersection between two central figures in the criminal leak investigation.
Rove told grand jurors it was possible he first heard in the White House that Valerie Plame, wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, worked for the CIA from Libby's recounting of a conversation with a journalist, according to people familiar with his testimony.
They said Rove testified that his discussions with Libby before Plame's CIA cover was blown were limited to information reporters had passed to them. Some evidence prosecutors have gathered conflicts with Libby's account.
Reading the rest of the story, one gets the impression Libby must feel like Brooke Palance in Empire of the Ants after she was abandoned by Robert Pine: all alone, with giant, man-eating insects (AKA federal prosecutors) closing in. Evidence that Libby initiated contact with NBC's Tim Russert and the NYT's Judith Miller before the Novak article doesn't help much.
Rove is characteristically oiling his way around the questions, peppering each response with "I can't recall" and "That's my general recollection."
On the other hand, there this:
Rove testified during the first appearance about his contacts with Novak in the days before Novak wrote a column outing Plame's identity. When asked generally if he had conversations with other reporters in that session, he answered "no."
Rove and his lawyer subsequently discovered an e-mail Rove had sent top national security aide Steve Hadley referring to a brief phone interview he had with [Time magazine's Mathew] Cooper.
The e-mail jogged Rove's memory and during a subsequent grand jury appearance, he volunteered his recollections about his conversation with Cooper, and his lawyer provided the e-mail to prosecutors. Cooper also wrote a story about Plame.
I just bet it did. I've had my memory "jogged" in that way myself many times.
For more laff-a-lympics, let's check on that Supreme Court nomination:
Supreme Court Nominee Is Asked to Redo Response to Questions
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - The Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers suffered another setback on Wednesday when the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked her to resubmit parts of her judicial questionnaire, saying various members had found her responses "inadequate," "insufficient" and "insulting."
Senators Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the committee chairman, and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat, sent Ms. Miers a letter faulting what they called incomplete responses about her legal career, her work in the White House, her potential conflicts on cases involving the administration and the suspension of her license by the District of Columbia Bar.
Their letter also asked her to provide detailed accounts of private reassurances about her views given by the White House or its allies to some conservative supporters who have been anxious about her positions on abortion and other social issues.
That slow uncomfortable screwing sensation the Religious Right is experiencing right now is what everyone else in this country has felt for the last five years. That far right freakshows like Ann Coulter are foaming (more than usual) over Miers' nomination fills me with a glowing warming glow.
I didn't exactly expect Bush to nominate someone whose views I might have even found remotely acceptable, but I have to admit, I'm surprised he went so far afield to alienate a significant chunk of his support base. And by giving her the Senatorial equivalent of a teacher's "'F' - SEE ME" on her questionnaire, the committee has all but guaranteed us some good entertainment, at least.
Finally, the stars a little bigger and brighter in Texas tonight:
Warrant out for arrest of Tom DeLay
AUSTIN - Travis County prosecutors played legal hardball Wednesday by having an arrest warrant issued for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, whose lawyers called it retaliation for their accusations of prosecutor misconduct.
The capias warrant by state District Judge Bob Perkins normally would have been a routine procedure in Texas after a person has been indicted on a felony. It requires that the defendant be arrested and have fingerprints and a mug shot taken.
A mug shot which will come to be known as The Face That Launched a Thousand Desktop Wallpapers.
Peenman, I just can't see any kind of admission of guilt ever coming out of the DeLay camp. There's just too much hubris there. I think he'll go down with his ship.
Peenman, I just can't see any kind of admission of guilt ever coming out of the DeLay camp.
I think we'll see a tearful, Swaggart-esque confession begging the lord for forgiveness. Especially since, as MSNBC(!) tells us, the apocalypse is nigh.
Hey, Rove.....Karma; it's a wonderful thing, you pasty-faced, weasely bastard!
Sorry about your Cards, dude.
I can't tell you how Rove is going to squeak out of this one. I saw a profile on Fitzgerald last night, and if anyone can pin Rove down, it's Fitzgerald. Unless, as I think I see happening, they somehow manage to make Libby and/or Darth Cheney take the fall for all of it and then magically pardon them after they have resigned.
Meirs is a sales tool. She is the option you really don't want so that the next presented option is a welcome relief. Alberto "Torture is OK" Gonzales will replace Meirs as the nomination to Supreme Court and will cake walk on to court.
DeLay? I haven't seen the Republican Party distancing themselves from him like I would have expected by now. I expect a kiddy-porn discovery on his computer followed by a Falwell-esque repentance and apology and return to grace. The whole campaign finance issue neatly and quietly swept to the side and forgotten.
Anybody want to give me odds on any of this?