When does Plamegate become just Scootergate?

If that happens, these will be my last words on the subject. The fate of Libby's indictment is not the point here.

I think it's pretty clear what happened--I like to speculate, but there's probably not that much need. Scooter has been ID'd as the fall guy for a long time--perhaps he was actually the one who spilled the beans, certainly the guy who failed to do the cross-check for the VP between the "Smear List" and the "Do Not Smear List". Don't you hate when that happens, when somebody turns out to be on both lists, and you don't realize it?

There I am, speculating again. It might've actually been somebody else's job--like Stephen Hadley, or Mary Hughes, who has been conspicuously absent for most of the scandal investigation. Anyway, Scooter's the one who couldn't be protected, just like Mary Astor in the Maltese Falcon. Somebody's got to take the fall for Rove and Veep.

I checked some of my notes from April, 2004. At that time, aware of the specific allegation that Libby was the source for Novak (apparently only half-right, that one)I was wondering whether the scandal might touch Cheney before (or even more deliciously, after) the Republican convention. I was off by about 18 months: if the indictment had hit before November, 2004, Bush & Co. would be out on the street. Which is, of course, why it didn't happen. In retrospect, the months the thing was with Ashcroft, the legal protections and email folders being reviewed, were key in the successful postponement of the case exploding in the collective Bushite face.

I do give Fitzgerald credit for doing the right thing. Even now, he's putting the legal thumbscrews to Liddy (excuse me, Libby) to get him to rat out the truth. But it's been slow, too slow. The media knew that Libby was the probable principal by the end of 2003; there was a real lack of interest when they should've been on it (instead all the nonsense about the National Guard in the '70's....)

As usual, the timing was great for Rove, as was his ability to avoid direct fire and to script properly his comments to the press. That guy's got to go! Also, cover up-related kudos to Robert Novak, who was the guy who put 2+2 together. You sleaze for publishing it; a rare combination of brilliance and consistent lack of integrity.

That'll be it, unless I get answers to my two principal unanswered questions:
1) What context exactly was the one in (presumed CIA agent) Miller's notebook in which she mentions "Valerie Flame"?
2) Who was the 8th Person in WHIG?

I've just got one more question: Can we get a do-over on 2004?