UPDATE:  Huge thank you to the great folks at PoliticsTV.  Here's our first recap for them from today.

Emptywheel and I are back at the house now.  She's exhausted, and my hand may have formed into a perpetual cramp from taking notes in the courtroom.  I'll be working up a summary, and doing some of the legal play-by-play (for the law wonks in the audience, hang onto your seats) — but it will be a little while before I can complete it.  There's lots of good stuff to discuss.

In the meantime, the tie of the day award goes to Jeffrey Toobin of CNN — for a lovely sky blue tie with a darker grecian tile motif.  Quite classy.

Here are a few tidbits from the courtroom:

– Pach got to ride up in the elevator this morning with Patrick Fitzgerald.  They talked a bit about the Mets.

– I got to ride up in the elevator with Team Libby:  Mrs. Libby, Scooter Libby, Ted Wells, and William Jeffress — with whom I had a conversation about the jury selection process and the "math geek" moment from yesterday.  (It was a weird timing coincidence for both of us, I have to say.)

– Scooter Libby has a nervous habit with his hands — it's not quite a wringing of hands, but more of a squeezing, with a thumb caress, when he's nervous.  I first noticed it early this morning when Patrick Fitzgerald was replaying tape of Libby's testimony before the grand jury, and it showed up again when he was watching Marc Grossman's testimony regarding the conversation that Grossman had with Libby after the Deputies Committee meeting wherein Grossman told Libby about Valerie wilson working for the CIA (or as Wells calls her "the wife").

– Barbara Comstock is a Chanel #5 kinda gal.  Just FYI.

– David Shuster is as amusing in person as he is on KO's show.  And he was also wearing a lovely chartreusey-green tie today with another tile motif.  (Must be the thing in DC.)

– Because I've gotten lots of questions on this, I'm going to do the Fitz versus Wells ensemble eval.:  Fitz was in a charcoal gray suit with a cerulean blue tie with a darker blue pattern woven into it.  Wells was in a navy suit with a lighter pinstripe woven into the fabric, very nice cut, and a magenta tie with a darker navy diamond pattern woven into it.  (There, I'm done with ties and ensembles today.)

– My favorite bit from the Wells' opening today?  Scooter Libby is just a "viewer" of MSNBC calling Tim Russert and actually getting him personally on the phone to complain.  Because, you know, I often just call up Tim Russert to complain about something I've seen on the news and get him to pick up the phone.  Not.  It had nothing, nothing at all, to do with the fact that the power of the Veep's office was behind Scooter Libby makng a call to a major national journalist to complain.  Yeah…um…sure.

Much more later once I have time to comb through my notes.  There is SO much going on in and around this trial, and I'm trying to figure out a way to weave it all into something coherent for you guys.  But, I do think I've found something that expresses the true theme of the Libby defense:  Everyone Makes Mistakes.

Also, I just got off the phone with Jane, who sounds wonderful, and we were talking shop.  Whew!  What an amazing day…so much more to write.  And Marcy and I did an interview with PoliticsTV, which we ought to have video of this evening.  I'll post a link as soon as we get it!

Related posts:

  1. New White House Counsel Bob Bauer and Scooter Libby Justice
  2. Cheney’s Betrayal Made an IIPA Charge for Libby Possible
  3. Cheney’s Lawyer Already Leaked the Content of Cheney’s “Privileged” Interview
  4. The Taxpayers Paid Dick Cheney’s Personal Defense Attorney to Obstruct Any Inquiries Into His Crimes
  5. Patrick Fitzgerald Gets a Promotion