By: Greg Mitchell Continuing a one-day tradition, we will be providing frequent updates all day on progress, or its lack, in the federal probe of Plamegate now winding down (perhaps) in Washington, D.C. Check back here for new entries, as speculation runs rampant and actual news occasionally rears its pretty head, posted at the top.
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9:15 PM ET. Pat Fitzgerald gets ready for his close-up, courtesy of UPI:
"The prosecutor, who has joked about not looking good in photos, took a short break to walk to nearby Antons barber shop, where he got a shoe shine. 'He was very friendly and he looked happy. He was very relaxed,' one of the owners of the shop said, adding: 'The shoe shine guy doesn't ask questions. Customers have a right to privacy.'"
But do CIA agents? Ah, that's the question.
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8:50 PM ET. Sell now! MarketWatch came out with an economic forecast on what indictments could bring:
"The U.S. dollar, Treasurys and American stocks could sell off if top White House aides are indicted on charges they leaked the identity of a CIA employee, analysts said Thursday. Any charges could create 'political paralysis' at the White House, said Brian Dolan, head of currency research at New Jersey-based trading firm Gain Capital.
"Charges would be 'detrimental to the dollar, a psychological blow,' said Alex Beuzelin, senior market analyst with Ruesch International in Washington. They would distract Bush from important economic issues like high energy prices, patches of slower growth and deficit reduction, he said.
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4:40 PM ET. Things have gotten so slow for one blogger, she has taken to mentioning semi-apt Phil Collins songs. That's like quoting Fillmore when Lincoln is available. So from a more grizzled generation, how about these Bob Dylan song titles:
"Tomorrow is a Long Time"
"Times Passes Slowly"
"Sooner Or Later (One of Us Must Know)"
"All Along the Watchtower"
"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"
"Mixed-Up Confusion"
"Not Dark Yet (But It's Gettin' There)"
"Only a Pawn in Their Game"
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
"Masters of War"
"Everything is Broken"
"Gotta Serve Somebody"
"Cold Irons Bound"
"Disease of Conceit"
"Outlaw Blues"
and of course, with a twist:
"A Hard Reign's A-Gonna Fall"
What we hope we don't face: "Silent Weekend"
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4:10 PM ET. What happens when people have too much time to ponder or fantasize, as the case may be. From Joel Achenbach's blog at The Washington Post:
"Let's say Fitzgerald alleges a full-blown conspiracy centered on the Vice President's office. It's not about a leak to the press, it's about the manipulation of classified information in a long-running campaign to sell the war. Cheney may be the most powerful Veep in history, and unlike Miers, he's popular with the Right, but ultimately he is politically expendable. He's never running for president. So: Indictments come down tomorrow, they appear to have long tentacles, and we start to hear a drumbeat from Congress and the pundits and the secret government types that Cheney has to go. He quits, Bush pardons him. Bush will pardon all these folks, the same way Bush 41 pardoned Cap Weinberger.
"I think we should rush this story into print right now, even though technically it is a product of the coffee I just drank."
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3:40 PM ET. What a difference a day makes. Until this morning, the most nervous people on the planet were those inside the White House bunker, awaiting word of who might be frog-marched off to jail. Now, because of the delay--and rumors that the federal prosecutor may be cutting deals and/or waiting for a new grand jury to bring charges--liberal critics of the administration seem to be equally worried, judging from various blogs. They may even be somewhat deflated, as all chatter about a possible Cheney indictment have ceased and the possibility rises that only perjury charges, if that, could be brought against the dreaded Rove.
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3:05 PM ET. The Boston Globe follows up on those visits by FBI agents to neighbors of the Wilson/Plames earlier this week--the ones who supposedly knew she was CIA all along (according to certain GOP partisans) but it turns out...not so much. The story notes that Plame had set up a fake job for herself in Boston and even listed the made-up company as her employer when she gave $1000 to Al Gore in 2000.
The story, which focuses on the neighborly Tillotsons, concludes on this note: "David Tillotson said half of his 10-minute conversation with FBI agents was about leaks, but not just leaks of the name of a CIA operative. The ceiling in Tillotson's ceiling home had sprouted some water leaks, and the agents politely discussed the problem with Tillotson before heading off to interview other neighbors."
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2:30 PM ET. Dan Froomkin at his Washington Post blog reports on some speculation by CNNers:
"As Candy Crowley suggested on CNN, if there are indeed indictments tomorrow, the Miers withdrawal will be quickly forgotten. That wipes the slate clean, more or less, and gives President Bush an opportunity to pivot away from the leak scandal with a new Supreme Court nomination sometime in the next week or two.
"CNN's Jeff Greenfield also noted that the Miers withdrawal headlines in tomorrow's papers will be a nice gift to Bush's conservative base -- on the very day indictments presumably come down and Bush really needs his most ardent supporters firmly in his court."
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1:50 PM ET. With little news to report, dark humor abounds. A reader claims to have it on good authority that charges against Rove and Libby have suddenly been dropped and prosecutor Fitzgerald will now be Bush's next nominee for the Supreme Court. Makes sense. He is rumored to be a Republican and is certainly more qualified than the unfortunate Meirs. Views on abortion: Unknown.
At AmericaBlog, in keeping with the Fitzmas theme, they are selling holiday cards with Karl Rove and "Treason's Greetings" on the front.
Meanwhile, over at Wonkette: "One thing's for certain: If Bush apparatchiks were expecting news of the Miers withdrawal to distract people from the grinding wheels of Patrick Fitzgerald-style justice, they sorely miscalculated. The special prosecutor's office has again announced that no word of grand-jury indictments will be forthcoming today. Fitzgerald's spokesmen did announce however, that they've downloaded Tetris on the special prosecutor's web page for anyone growing exasperated with the wait."
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11:40 AM ET, from ABC News: "Libby and Rove arrived for work at the White House Thursday as usual. Rove attended the daily meeting of the senior staff, but Libby did not and was said to be in a security briefing. Libby misses senior staff about half the time because of intelligence briefings and other issues on Cheney's schedule, an official said.
"Rove's legal team made contingency plans, consulting with former Justice Department official Mark Corallo about what defenses could be mounted in court and in public."
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10:45 AM ET: It's suddenly looking more like Fitzmas Eve than Fitzmas Morning. CNN just reported that the office of prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald says it expects no public announcements today. So it's true what everyone says about the guy: He's a real party-pooper.
Of course, this will not stop all the private announcements.
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10:25 AM ET: While all the excitement is going on back in D.C., where is former Amb. Joe Wilson, the man at the heart of the matter? Apparently on a college lecture tour. Speaking in Idaho this week, he said, according to AP, that he takes no satisfaction from the potential downfall of senior White House officials and that the investigation of who leaked his wife's name has put the future of the American republic at stake. "This is the first time in the history of the U.S., a CIA officer has had their identity compromised by the executive office," Wilson said.
He also offered this quip, referring to the current White House modus operandi: "They'll do unto others what they did unto me."
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9:55 AM ET: OK, we presume that Harriet Miers did not withdraw as a Supreme Court nominee because she is about to be indicted in the CIA leak case. We presume.
Meanwhile, David Brooks in The New York Times asserts that Plamegate is nowhere near as serious as Iran-Contra. But will it give us another fallen hero/cable news star like Oliver North? Scooter Libby does have a certain charisma.
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7:30 AM ET: A bit of parody, we hope, from "D.C. Insider" at the conservative Red State blog:
"My sources are relaying to me information that may be very good news re: the Plame Case. Although I cannot substantiate this info 100%, I am receiving this from sources very close to the investigation and grand jury:
"No indictments for Rove, Libby or any member of the administration. Probable indictments for Vallerie Plame, Joseph Wilson and one as-yet-unknown, high-ranking Congressional Democrat.
"No wrongdoing or misuse of intelligence on the part of the administration. Possible criminal conduct in an attempt to smear the White House on the part of Congressional Democrats, Plame and Wilson.
"Again, take this with a grain of salt but this is what I am hearing from my sources and the D.C. grapevine."
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