Off-topic bewilderment:

I don’t get it. I know there was a lot going on, but so far as I can tell no one in the US seems to be taking much notice of the fact that Bush chased a bunch of reporters around with a 70 ton bulldozer yesterday.

I mean, even if it isn’t out of character it seems a little over the line, even as a prank.

http://bailey.talk.newsweek.co…..tem=464251

– MarkusQ

Here is the video- This President is out of control! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLlUgilKqms

Thanks for all the hard work and mental popcorn.

granted the fdl ‘correspondents’ are articulate but are they ………..clean?

I mean clean in a ‘margarine commercial on tv’ sort of way?

and where is the glossy lipstick and paper shuffling, even signing, at the end of the broadcast?

and how come they sound smarter than the most popular cheerleader?

when did ‘news’ become about real life? wtf?

I’m waiting for their Outtakes and Bloopers DVD to be released. I’m excited about it. If they haven’t planned one, they should. Serious snark in spontaneous sacrilege and profanities that roll right off their tongues.

Who is this witness Judge Walton says needs discussion — would this be a witness not listed? Since Marcy raised the question about the President, I’ll ask: Could they be bringing the President in to testify about the orders Scottie got?

The mystery witness is Jill Abramson (sic) spelling. Works for the Times.

Nobody’s “delivering” because every witness called so far is a Bushie

explains why the lack of memory seems so coordinated

Granted I am completely biased against Libby, but given the testimony that I’ve been reading here and given that I am a lay person and not attorney, I honestly don’t believe that the little chips Jeffress took out of Miller’s and Cooper’s testimony is enough to outweigh all the previous testimony by members of the administration.

It simply is overwhelming that Libby was consumed with Wilson and his wife for quite a long time before his Russert excuse.

I was even surprised to learn that Jeffress had gotten Miller to express the tiniest bit of doubt as to whether she had first heard of Valerie from Libby. I sat reading the blogging all day long and it totally escaped me amidst everything else that was said. I never saw it. (And yes I even made the jump to DKos and came back and read what was missed.)

Therefore, I wonder, too, that this might not have been the case with the jurors. We’re all pretty focused and attorneys even more so, but you’ve essentially got people new to the details of this case of which there are many and I think people tend to get an overall picture rather than pick up little chips.

I agree, as a layperson and former juror, I think Scooter is toast. The big question to me is still “Why did this go to trial?”

Patrick Fitzgerald has placed a lot of faith in Judy Miller and Matthew Cooper and their less than perfect memories and note-taking skills.

Not really. IIRC, he has even refered to them as a few loose ends, or words to that effect.

Remember, he isn’t being charged with outing Plame, but rather with lying and obstruction of justice. For this Fitzgerald doesn’t need to establish that they first heard about Plame from him (despite what the defence is trying to confuse the jury with).

They could, conceivably, have cleared him (say by saying that they both heard about it from Tim Russert and jointly decided to ask Russert to call Libby and tell him as well, and signed, dated and notarized an agreement to that effect. But that didn’t happen; not even close). What we saw with them was the t and the i being crossed and dotted. That’s all.

–MarkusQ

I think Marcus is closer to it than Jeralyn, witht he cavet that Jeralyn has the benefit of actually being in the courtroom and feeling the vibe from the jury, while I have the off side view that comes from reading Marcy’s live blogging . (Can I digress agai about how great that is).

But Marcy is right, it’s not a transcript and often these things hang on the nuance of a particular phrase. Also, some things come across VERY dfferently live than they do in the transcript. So, the effect on the jury could be quite different.

I think it is important to remember that it doesn’t matter if they first heard it from Scooter. It matters that THEY HEARD IT FROM SCOOTER AT ALL and that Scooter told the GJ that they had not heard from him, he learned it from them.

That ought make the lies pretty clear. I’m thinking from the little tid bits we have gotten.

Has it occured to anyone that there were likely two conspiracies operating in the WH and gunning for Wilson? Rove/Bush and Cheney/Libby may have each had their own operations that were watching out for their respective interests.

If there were, I suspect that the Cheney/Libby cabal may have played the other team by putting a bug in their ear about Plame and then stepping back while they hung themselves with their loose tongues. It seems Ari, Armitage, Rove, and Bartlett did most of the public dirty work for them.

YES!
I think Leopold reported on this. When Rove found out he had been set up by OVP (outing Valerie without being told she’s a NOC) he went ballistic and vowed he wouldn’t take the fall for them.