It’s difficult to say for sure. This, to me, reamins something of a “minimum information” – or more accurately, an “insufficient information” – problem. I need more information about this whole affair to have any confidence in any analysis of it.

That being said, “just what” Scooter and Cheneny and the White House Iraq Group got out of Scooter buttering Judy’s biscuit at the St. Regis might be something like this (and I claim no originality in this proposition – it is a common hypothesis).

The Office of the Vice President (and maybe some members of the White House Iraq Group, maybe Hadley, maybe Rove, depending on who’s telling the story) decide they want to get out classified information. “Selected portions,” to be sure. But the powers that be (Tenet, Bush, or others, depending on who’s telling the story) can’t be persuaded to declassify the information, or are not even approached, due to the political sensitivity of declassifying information for political purposes with the 2004 election approaching.

So the leakers (1) want classified information out, (2) can’t get it declassified, and (3) don’t want to go to jail for leaking it.

The solution: First, plant the information with reporters they are highly confident will not give them up. Judy, Woodruff, and the like. Then, ask them to delay publishing it, or not publish it, give them something else incomplete that they will have to take time to investigate before publishing, tell them that the leaked information is unreliable or contested, or something like that. Second, wait a few weeks. Third, hope that Judy and Woodruff and the like are such big gossips that they will spread the word among other reporters, and when approached for confirmation, the leakers can say something like, “That sounds about right.” Fourth, failing approaches for confirmation, or in the event of a major problem, such as Wilson going public in the New York Times, they start spreading the leak among other reporters, like the boys at Time, Pincus, and others.

The {flawed} thinking is, if ever called to account for breaking the law, they can simply say, “I didn’t leak anything, it was all over Washington by the time I talked to {insert name of reporter here}. As a matter of fact, that’s where I heard of it for the first time. As for that classified report containing the information that was circulated to me, I was so busy protecting my nation from turrists that I never even had a chance to read it. May God Bless America.”

So as to “just what” Scooter got out of buttering Judy’s biscuit, it was not a story, but a cover for the leaks they would ultimately make that would utlimately lead to stories in other publications.

Just a hypothesis, mind you. A little convoluted. On the other hand, when you’re involved in criminal activity and lying to the extent these people were, then convolution is to be expected.

I thought keith’s guest host was LAME. He pissed off Bill Nye the Science guy, and me, too, by trying to be funny when BNTSG was trying to be serious. I shut it off at that point.

Agnie… sorry about McCain… you only get to survive a one night stand…. those of us in AZ are stuck with him until 2010 or….. GOD forbid 2008………….I need to check in with some of my conserative Dems neighbors and see if he still calls himself a “McCain” Democrat.

There is just one problem with my implication (that Cheney. Bush, or both authorized Scooter to talk about the “classified CIA report”) and your deduction (that his discussions with reporters about Plame “most likely originated in a similar fashion”) – we have to buy into what you term “Libby’s story” – that he was cautious about leaking classified material.

But suppose this.

Suupose that, in fact, when it came to leaking classified material, Scooter was the “go-to” man in this administration. Often, he leaked on his own. Often, if others wanted something leaked, they went to Scooter to get the evild deed done. As a result, there are a lot of skeletons in his closet.

But everything was fine. A compliant Congress and reporters (Judy Miller, Woodward, and the like) who were on board with The Cause, who wouldn’t bite the hand that was feeding them, or both, meant that everything would remain under wraps.

Until Comey appointed Fitzgerald.

All of a sudden, tracks had to be covered. Scooter’s tracks. Because he was the primary source of the evil.

So they did things early on in the Fitzgerald phase of the prosecution like getting Bush to go along with saying that he “authorized” Scooter to divulge the NIE information to Judy (”Mr. President, I appreciate you not wanting to get your hands dirty with this, but if they get into Scooter, they get into all of our dirty laundry, and we can’t afford that. His leaking was so diverse that you’re the only one who can cover it all by claiming you declassified the stuff. We’ll amend the executive order regarding declassification so that Cheney can take the heat from here on out, but for now, you gotta get Scooter in the clear. It’s too soon to pardon him, so this is the only way.”)

As part of this cover, they concocted the “Scooter is cautious” fairy tale. He checked, double-checked, and triple-checked before even talking to reporters. He didn’t even really talk to reporters – that was Cathie Martin’s job. Judy Miller even confirms how cautious Scooter was with classified information.

Problem is (for you and me), “Libby’s story” is all a big lie, and as such, cannot be “reasoned from.”

Problem is (for the administration), a lot of these lies they concocted early on are coming to pieces now, but having told them, they’re kind of stuck with them (at least until Christmas Eve, when they can get out from under all of this).

Sorry, didn’t meant to get so dramatic, but heh! It’s all true.