So, Patrick Fitzgerald knew all the answers to the Plame case within 2 weeks of taking the case. That means he could have revealed the entire affair in the open if he'd sped up his "investigation" to beyond the pace of a crippled snail.

That means we would have known all about Rove, Novak, Cooper and Scooter Libby's role in all of this well in advance of the 2004 elections.

Man, Fitzgerald is a smooth political operative, is he not? Got everyone to believe he was being thorough while he was passing the time between Chicago and DC, shootin' the breeze with the lawyers and the principal players, all the while holding off on any announcements or indictments until well after the 2004 election.

And Scooter Libby? Fitzgerald is supposedly not bringing Libby's case before a jury until "early 2007." That's convenient, is it not, since there are elections in late 2006?

As for Rove and Novak, et al, who concocted their little cover stories amongst themselves and got away with it... well, I'm betting they made "deals" with Fitzgerald. They promise to testify against Libby just as soon as Fitzgerald brings a case against Libby in a court of law. And if Libby happens to be pardoned before they have to testify -- why, it's just a coincidence, that's all. And if powerful Republicans like Tucker Carlson's daddy and others pay Scooter Libby's lawyerin' bills for him, then no harm done, eh? Libby goes free, Rove goes free, Novak goes free and so on and so on down the line. Very little is paid for by taxpayers (Fitzgerald is "humble" and "not extravagant" and an "introvert", remember? He's no Ken Starr!) and a lot is paid for by Libby's benefactors.

Rove, Libby, Novak, et al, go on to continue making millions of dollars through book deals, speaking fees, seats on 'think tanks" and as "consultants" to corporations. Hey -- maybe Libby will get a cabinet appointment, just as if he were an Iran-Contra pardoned convict. Wouldn't that be a nice reward?

And Fitzgerald will go along claiming to be the unbiased, "completely thorough" dullard prosecutor who simply did the best he could, considering his obsessive-compulsive need to dot all the i's and cross all the t's.

Heh, heh. We've been had. Bigtime, as Cheney would say. And all the "leaks" lefty bloggers printed on the Plame case?

Ultimately, they were orchestrated by Rove and the GOP.

So much for the power of blogs. All the GOP needed for this whole shebang was one guy. A prosecutor who needn't recuse himself; someone who would play the dress-up game, performing an elaborate prolonged drama -- a drama that ultimately turned out to be a pantomime-- and they got him.

Merry Fizzlemas.

If Novak is a CIA operative and he discloses the identity of a CIA employee, perhaps he cannot be prosecuted because he hasn't broken a law. Lots of people think this is a CIA catfight, with the conservative CIA people (those who believe Congress overstepped its bounds after Watergate and de-balled the CIA) on one side, and the post-Watergate CIA people who believe the CIA should act within the law on the other side.

There has always been a hot-dog group of conservative whackjobs in the CIA... some people even think they were involved in a certain well-known assassination or two.... and it is no secret that they have been trying to get the CIA back to what they believe to be "on track". With this administration, I think the conservative whackjobs in the CIA have a great chance of succeeding. Cheney and Addington and Libby and Gonzales and Bush all believe in torture, in illegal activities on the part of the US government, such as kidnapping foreign nationals; kidnapping US citizens coveniently labeled 'enemy combatants; spying illegally on citizens here and abroad.

Who better to deliver a smackdown to a Democrat CIA agent than a hardcore radical conservative CIA agent? I think Rove gets as much, if not more, information from Novak as Novak gets from Rove. And Rove could never have survived these past 5 years in DC if he hadn't had very powerful friends at the FBI and the CIA.

This guy is like the provocateurs from the anti-abortion movement who go to school to become pharmacists specifically so they can get jobs with megastore chains, then refuse to fill prescriptions for contraception. Then they file a lawsuit claiming discrimination on religious grounds. "My conscience won't let me fill those prescriptions. Despite the fact that I legally have no right to interfere between doctor and patient care, I reserve the right to keep my job while refusing to honor the doctor patient relationship, while interfering in medical treatment of a patient by witholding legal medical treatment ordered by someone who has higher legal authority in my state over medical care than I do, and by passing moral judgment on a customer, which is not part of my job description. You can't fire me! I demand my rights as a religious person."

Ken Lay had a trial by a jury of his peers, in a United States courtroom where he was represented by the best legal counsel money can buy. Then he died of arteriosclerotic heart disease in his lavish vacation home in a Colorado resort area.

James Byrd ... mmmmmm.... let's see...no trial, no jury, no courtroom, no lawyer, no vacation home. Beaten, dragged and decapitated.

Somebody needs to be tested for tertiary syphilis. Because I cannot imagine an undiseased brain coming up with such a comparison.

"Also, it's interesting that Bush was there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't he not attended a single memorial service for our soldiers in Iraq?"

George HW Bush is no longer president. I don't think he should attend a military funeral unless it is for kin. Certainly, none of his children or grandchildren are in the military, so really, there's no point.