Early Fitzmas present or a Pandora's box?

Maybe Fitzmas will finally come tomorrow...

... but today's news about the scuttled Supreme Court nominee, predicted here earlier in the week, produces the same combination of thrill and angst as does the looming announcment from special prosecutor Fitzgerald.

So now what will a petulant, bitter, angry, politically wounded President do -- especially since his brain is preoccupied with self-preservation? Long used to getting his way, Bush has been rumored to revile the Unreligious Wrong going back to his pre-Goobernatorial days. And the fundies now wear the blood of Harriet Miers, one of Bush's closest confidants, on their hands.

So will he throw the Christian lions a piece of red meat, such as Priscilla Owen or Edith Jones -- or will he tell them to "bring it on" again with a 'moderate' nominee like Al Gonzales or Edith Clement?

Is he a uniter (of just the GOP) or a divider (of the entire nation, again)?

Bush is foremost a rewarder of loyalty, and he prefers Texans, and he's got a bit of a retribution hangup, so I'm guessing he taps the beaner.

(Hey, Carlos Mencia uses that word all the time, so don't call me a racist. Besides, I'm married to a Cuban.)

*heavy sigh*

... on the opposite side of the upper deck near the left-field foul pole, 89-year-old L.L. Godwin sat in his chair, his cane tucked under one arm, a blanket over his legs and an Astros cap tipped back on his head.

He, too, attended countless games of the Astros, Colt .45s and, before that, the Houston Buffs. His granddaughter — Debbie Rasmussen of Tomball — recalled how as a child she used to cuddle into bed with her grandfather on visits and fall asleep to the sounds of Astros games on the radio.

It was a loss. The Astros' first World Series is over. But for many, the taste was worth the wait.

"Big Time" (and "Slam Dunk")

So now we know it was the Vice President who told Scooter Libby the name of Joe Wilson's wife ... but who told him?

Larry Johnson fills in the back story:

It also seems pretty clear that the notes show that Libby lied to the grand jury when he claimed he learned the name from reporters. ... Although the NY Times story reports that Libby's notes indicate that George Tenet told Cheney about Plame, there are some intriguing unanswered questions. For starters it is highly unlikely that George Tenet showed up at the White House and just happened to know the name of Valerie Plame. Someone at the White House asked for it first. Tenet clearly came prepared to respond to a White House request. I'm sure the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, knows who called CIA to ask the question.

I also doubt that Tenet used the name "Plame". Since Valerie married Joe Wilson she went by 'Valerie Wilson'. Someone introduced "Plame" into the equation. Who did the subsequent work up on Mrs. Wilson? Only Scooter? Unlikely. Look for other names to emerge in coming days that will reveal who helped work out the "background" info on Valerie Wilson.

Find the excerpt above here and here.

The situation is worsening quickly. Where does this lead from here?

Steve Clemons thinks there may be a connection to John Bolton:

The question is how did Libby then churn up more info on Wilson without other parts of the "untrusted" bureaucracy spitting in his face or reporting his sins?

My hunch is that he went to trusted spear-carriers for Vice President Cheney -- the office and staff of Under Secretary of State John Bolton. Fred Fleitz, Bolton's chief of staff, maintained his CIA WINPAC portfolio and access as an active duty CIA staff member while he operated as Bolton's "acting" chief of staff. We know that Fleitz was a key part of the intelligence cherry-picking/stove-piping operation when it came to both the intel and policy response to various global WMD concerns -- in North Korea, Libya, Iran, and Iraq.

We also know that David Wurmser and John Hannah, who have both apparently cooperated after threats of legal action (i.e., time behind bars) with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald worked both for John Bolton's operation and the Vice President's office.

I recently consulted with a number of senior State Department officials about the level of interaction between Vice President Cheney's office and John Bolton's office -- and was informed that there was "intense" exchange between them, constant. One said that "Bolton and his team were operatives of Vice President Cheney inside the State Department establishment -- there to subvert Armitage and Powell wherever they could, and if not subvert, then there to spy on the them and report back.

I'd just like to know if the President gets a pass because we all believe he's too stupid to have known any of this was going on.

Update: The Bolton connection -- specifically Bolton's chief of staff, Fred Fleitz -- was detailed by Arianna Huffington last month. Sheesh, I gotta keep up.

The sorry spectacle of Judith Miller and Harriet Miers

Two women in the middle of two very big messes at the same time -- both the result of their own arrogance: Judith Miller, irascible New York Times reporter and Harriet Miers, woefully inexperienced Supreme Court Justice nominee. Both women find the headlines every day and the stories behind those headlines keep getting worse. And yet neither woman can summon the humility to simply stand up, declare “mea culpa” and walk away -- sparing the rest of us the circus they've both created.

Sunday's New York Times has yet another story by yet another colleague of Miller’s, Byron Calame, “the reader’s representative”, throwing more poisonous darts in an attempt to push her out the door. Coming on the heels of MoDo's missles, it's obvious that there are quite a few of Judy's co-workers who think she deserves to be pushed -- hard.

I suspect we'll see some more of this in days to come as the Gray Lady tries to salvage what little is left of her former reputation. Unfortunately, it will continue to be the kind of spectator sport in which the audience members are tied to their chairs, eyes held open with a speculum ( a la Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange) and forced to watch as the paper repeatedly flogs itself in an act meant to convince people that, this time, it really means it -- it will change.

Note to the Times: we can only take so much of this.

When President Bush announced the nomination of Harriet Miers on October 3, he called her “a leader of unquestioned integrity.” Much of what we’ve learned since then does not support that claim. To review:

- Miers was suspended from the DC bar for nonpayment of dues.

- Miers was suspended from the Texas bar for nonpayment of dues.

- Miers repeatedly had tax liens placed on property she owned in Texas for nonpayment of fines and fees.

- Miers received 10 times the market value for a small piece of land she controlled from the state of Texas, awarded by a panel stacked with friends and allies. A mediator ordered Miers to repay $26,000 but she has failed to do so.

These take on added significant because -- since Miers doesn’t have any judicial experience -- Bush is selling Miers’s nomination to the court, in large part, on her “character.”

Harriet Miers needs to withdraw her name from the nomination process immediately. It’s become obvious that a person so full of herself that she would even consider accepting a nomination for the Supreme Court with her glaring lack of qualifications places herself above what's good for the court and the United States.

It's hard to believe that this administration is concerned about avian influenza when it is a raging case of hubris that seems to be affecting nearly everyone in Washington.

Bush praises Miers' character, but that's only because it reflects his own to a T: grab all you can and screw everybody else.

Kay Bailey Hutchison's devolving opinion on perjury

February 12, 1999:

The edifice of American jurisprudence rests on the foundation of the due process of law. The mortar in that foundation is the oath. Those who seek to obstruct justice weaken that foundation, and those who violate the oath would tear the whole structure down.

Every day, thousands of citizens in thousands of courtrooms across America are sworn in as jurors, as grand jurors, as witnesses, as defendants. On those oaths rest the due process of law upon which all of our other rights are based.

The oath is how we defend ourselves against those who would subvert our system by breaking our laws. There are Americans in jail today because they violated that oath. Others have prevailed at the bar of justice because of that oath.

What would we be telling Americans -- and those worldwide who see in America what they can only hope for in their own countries -- if the Senate of the United States were to conclude: The President lied under oath as an element of a scheme to obstruct the due process of law, but we chose to look the other way?

I cannot make that choice. I cannot look away. I vote `Guilty' on Article I, Perjury. I vote `Guilty' on Article II, Obstruction of Justice.

I ask unanimous consent an analysis of the Articles of Impeachment be printed in the Record.

October 23, 2005:

I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars.

As ThinkProgress points out, Kay's probably forgotten that perjury is a technicality punishable by up to five years in prison.

Moneyshot Quotes of the Week

I'm a little behind on these, so let's catch up with the comics:

"President Bush is getting a lot of grief from conservatives about Harriet Miers' lack of legal opinions, which is kind of surprising. A woman without any opinions? That's like a Republican's dream, isn't it?"
--Jay Leno

"But this sort of barrenness is threatening to the Republican base because they're generally people who hate sex and are bad at it. So they fear that their own population will dwindle because there won't be enough Republicans willing to **** each other. Harriet Miers isn't using the equipment God gave her for making babies, and that's just wrong. It's like God giving you a beautiful garden and you not strip mining it for coal."
--Bill Maher, on the fact that Harriett Miers isn't married with children

"Over the weekend at one of the games---Houston and St. Louis---one of the camera men caught former President Bush and his wife Barbara Bush kissing. Y'know, by God, you know you're at a dull game when you'd rather make out with Barbara Bush."
--David Letterman

I don't know what to do to keep from getting the Avian Flu, but my first step is staying away from any bird running a fever.
--Will Durst

"According to the latest polls, just 39% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing. The White House is jumping on this 39% thing, they're saying he's now the president who represents minorities."
--Jay Leno

Bill O'Reilly: There's a lot of bad people out there and it's our job to go after them.
Jon Stewart: So when are you going to start?

It's a beautiful day in Houston, so I'm pushing away from the computer for the rest of it. Have a nice weekend.

Now THIS mugshot might be fake...

I think "Hot Tub" Tom is probably standing on some phone books...