• Time reporter Viveca Novak says Karl Rove was the likely source of a July 2003 article about Valerie Plame. Novak: “I remember [Rove's lawyer] looking at me and saying something to the effect of ‘Karl doesn’t have a [Matt Cooper] problem. He was not a source for Matt.’ I responded instinctively, thinking he was trying to spin me, and said something like, ‘Are you sure about that? That’s not what I hear around Time.’ He looked surprised and very serious.” [Time, NYT, WSJ]
• Sen. Frist threatens to use the “nuclear option” to save Samuel Alito from a filibuster. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): “We’re not close to a deal.” [WP, NYT, LAT]
• White House flack Trent Duffy: “What you will see more of next year is the president going back to the basics — winning the war and growing the economy and creating jobs.” [WT]
• Sen. Clinton’s quiet, centrist approach to Iraq “is drawing increasing scorn from liberal activists.” [WP]
• Ronald Brownstein on Alito’s abortion memos: “It’s still not clear these disclosures will seriously threaten Alito’s confirmation. And if they do not, both sides might need to rethink basic assumptions about the politics of the Supreme Court.” [LAT]
• Gov. Mark Warner (D-Va.) tours battleground states for a head-start on ‘08. Warner: “As Democrats, what we have to do is put forward ideas and candidates that can win in places like Florida, that can win in places like Virginia.” [NYT]

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• Lack of bias for thee but not for me: Washington Times reporter (and Christian) Bill Sammon believes “Most stories…have a moral dimension, and ignoring that dimension misrepresents the news.” [Christian Examiner via Romenesko]
• CNN lost viewers under Jon Klein. You know what this means: MORE COOPER. [TVNewser]
• ABC-purchased Grand Theft Auto changes Jake Tapper’s life, providing street cred and razor sharp instincts to hide when the scent of pigs is in the air. [Down and Dirty via FishbowlDC]
• NBC names new news division prez… and they’re going to look into this whole “news on the web” thing. Also CBS Evening News gets a producer. Is that still on? [NYT, AP]
• Bizarre disappearing John Huey mugs. [Gawker]

Among the many things to be thankful for last week we counted a Thanksgiving Eve column by Lloyd Grove, and its coverage of an appearance by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. During an interview held by Norm Pearlstine, Scalia mocked schoolchildren (Whining “The Constitution is a living document” while rolling his eyes), taunted media elites (”You can dish it out, but you can’t take it.”) and defended the court’s decision to hear Bush v. Gore using what Al Kamen today called the “appearance-of-ridiculousness standard”:

What did you expect us to do? Turn the case down because it wasn’t important enough? Or give the Florida Supreme Court another couple of weeks in which the United States could look ridiculous?

Sure, why let Florida have all the fun? MORE »

Another missive from the humid hothouse of journalist-on-journalist love. This afternoon’s entertainment was a Q&A between the cosy duo of Time’s Matt Cooper and Time’s Jim Kelly. Kelly, Time’s editor, kicked things off with a recap of the past 28 months, from the Cooper’s “double super secret background” convo with Karl Rove (in which Rove mentioned, sans name, that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA) to Judith Miller’s aspen-turning move in yesterday’s New York Times. Summing up, Kelly turned to Cooper and asked: “So do you have any idea what the case is about?”

Restrained titters.

Cooper: “Well, yes.” He said this whole thing is about the White House “outing a covert CIA agent as punishment” for going against the administration.

Then he told us some things we didn’t know, and they are after the jump.

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The idea — as cited by Lloyd Gove in his column today — that TIME’s Matt Cooper is fishing for a job at the NYT because the newsweekly’s hire of Mike Allen has made him feel “a bit crowded” seems off to us. First of all, Allen is not that much taller than Dickerson. Does hog the covers, tho. And then there’s the question of whether Matt’s fishing… or was he pushed? Far from being crowded, we hear he may be lonely: Since his bravura performance of “I Was THISCLOSE to Jail” on the courthouse steps last month, the reception by his colleagues has been stilted and the magazine’s editors aren’t sure what to do with him. (Jim Kelley’s response to inquiries about Cooper’s future in last week’s NYT piece were somewhat less than enthusiastic: “It’s not a matter of appropriateness; it’s a matter of effectiveness.”)

The Times, however, has the perfect role for Cooper: foil. Our sources say that it’s not so much the Times that’s interested in Cooper as it is managing editor Bill Keller. The rank-and-file, on the other hand, wonder why Keller would be interested. We suspect Keller is looking for a soulmate, or at least a cellmate. With almost-a-martyr Cooper on staff, Keller might succeed in muddying the waters over of the paper’s internal investigation of Judith Miller’s role in the leaking of the name of CIA agent Valerie Wilson (Plame, whatever).

Please don your tin-foil hats before we continue after the jump.

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We’d been enjoying all the attention being paid to the earnest and diligent Mike Allen’s move from the WaPo to TIME — it’s thrilling to watch someone make the transition from famous-for-DC to famous-for-DC-NYC-corridor — but today’s NYT hammers home the real reason for the Drudge-spurred interest in the move (though Drudge’s interest in Allen himself may be unrelated). As the Times says, Allen’s “hiring may have implications for the status of Time’s other White House correspondent, Matthew Cooper.” TIME honcho Jim Kelley notes darkly that “It’s not a matter of appropriateness; it’s a matter of effectiveness.” Well, at least Matt has his show biz career to fall back on. MORE »

We dream of the day when our career changes warrant the coveted Drudge “FLASH”:

NRO picks up the tidbit everyone told us was double super-secret: The Washington Post’s current Hill reporter, former White House correspondent and unfailingly polite Mike Allen is in talks with TIME magazine to leave the Post for TIME’s more luxurious lodgings over on 12th Street. He gave Eric Pfeiffer what can’t even be called a non-denial denial, more like a non-confirmation confirmation: “Thank you for asking. I love The Washington Post and have not made a decision about any change.” MORE »

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The New York Observer makes the case for Matt Cooper, legendary DC funnyman. In the process, iron-stomached correspondent Leon Neyfakh plunges readers into the grim demimondes of both live comedy performances and Washington “humor.” Here’s a snapshot of the Coop, monitoring the work of his protegee, Roll Call columnist Mary Ann Akers, as she floated a few gay marriage jokes at the National Press Club: MORE »

• TIME honcho Jim Kelley talks Jon Friedman into submission: “We spoke so much, as a matter of fact, that I was out of breath (and questions) by the time we wrapped up a marathon phone interview.” Yet says nothing: “Above all, Kelly stressed: ‘You’re not going to see Time reporters put the name of a confidential source in an email.’” [Marketwatch] MORE »