WaPo has all but fingered Mr. Green, in the library, with the candlestick. Stay with me now: Rove is saying he first learned of Plame’s identity from Libby, not from any classified dossier stuck conspicuously between the seat cushions on Air Force One. He also got the same dish from an anonymous second party in the White House. But before all this, Rove knew only that Wilson’s wife (at the time her name was unrevealed) worked at the CIA, which information came to him — or so he claims — by way of the press. This means that the first few drops of this leak were dripped either by Libby himself, or by that anonymous second party in the White House. Or by someone else entirely. At this point, my money’s on Margaret Spellings. That affably hip homeroom demeanor has always struck me as a little too perfect. And we now know she can’t have been terribly busy leaving no child behind. Follow the schoolteacher. MORE »

At just 45 years-old, Patrick Fitzgerald may be only a hatchling of an independent prosecutor, but his deposition skills have been forced to mature rather quickly. This is because they haven’t always been used for good; they were formerly used for even better. And once again, African intrigue related to occluded intelligence about Saddam’s WMD program was at the heart of the matter. MORE »

So either Libby’s a moron or he’s a Straussian genius of recondite literary sleuthing. Where else have the “aspens turned” before?
Using to the latest in forensic science — Amazon’s “Search Inside This Book” function — WonkCentral has cracked the Da Scooter Code. Look no further. The winks, the nudges, the war-ravaged pillow talk: It’s all in here. MORE »