the wheels of justice turn slow but eventually it all comes back around. on the bright side hopefully this gives fitzmas some extra time to uncover more evidence.

Unless the date changes, Libby's involvement will be hanging over Repub. heads coming election day. A smart political opposition could win with that issue, provided they have the guts to do it.

also, assuming it is a long trial with no plea, it will be well timed to peak in time to be relevant to the 2008 elections which are both congressional AND presidential. maybe it isn't so unfortunate afterall, especially if the 2008 R nominee is from the Cheney/Bush wing of the party.

I heard a report on NPR about the case. Apparently the tactic is to claim that Libby was too busy trying to prevent terrorist attacks to remember exactly what he told to whom when. The defence plans to ask the government to declassify documents showing how busy Libby was at that time. Chances are the government will refuse, claiming national security concerns, and then there's a chance the case will be thrown out. I think they mentioned that this judge had essentially done that in a wrongful dismissal case brought by an FBI whistleblower.

Does this seem plausible to anyone?

Plenty of time for other indictments for obstruction, pejury etc

Hello Mr. Rove !!

Me thinks Mr. Fitzgerald will make good use of the time

All this delay also encourages the guilty to get careless & do (more) really stupid things

"Proof depends on who you are. We're looking for a preponderance of evidence, and some people need more of a preponderance than other people." - John Kantner

Matt >"...Chances are the government will refuse, claiming national security concerns, and then there's a chance the case will be thrown out..."

The charges in this specific indictment involve NO classified documents; that line of defense is a delusion & will go nowhere

The indictment is about obstruction of justice & perjury; blocking actions preventing the prosecutors from investigating the "underlying crime" which is the one with classified material involved

All the babble about classified material is intentional misdirection by the defense

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." - Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

January 2007? Scoots has got to be loving that swift move. I believe it's fair to say that the 'outting' of a CIA operative in today's America is a perfectly acceptable premise. Spying on Americans is a perfectly acceptable practice. Holding the miscreants to account...unacceptable. Dick Chency and Karl Rove are laughing their well cushioned bottoms off and Valerie Plame? I believe that she is out of a job. Probably damn lucky to still be alive. The great American experiment in democracy is damaged beyond justice and repair.

That would be Dick Cheney not 'Chency'. Sorry!

WaPo article Fri afterooon
"Court documents released today provide new details about the testimony VP's former chief of staff gave to a grand jury investigating his conversations with reporters and administration officials about a CIA operative"

Docs identify the conflict betwwen Libby and what Miller and Fleischer said he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020302095.html

It would be nice to know what Libby's lawyer is "actually" doing this September.

I guess we'll just have to get off our butts and get going. There's plenty of material to work with. But are we doing the job? I wish MoveOn's efforts were better and more effective.

I'm disappointed that Fitzgerald seems to be backing away from the comments about the Plame case that he made the day he announced the Libby indictment. In his response to Libby's lawyers' request for documentation, he now says that most of what was being requested doesn't matter. Yet the day of the indictment announcement, he clearly said the facts of the case did matter. What is he doing?

Whether or not the Dems get their shit together and mount an organized opposition will determine the outcome of the 2006 midterms. Ideally, of course it would be better if there was a high profile republican scandal unfolding in a courtroom leading up to the balloting, but it would depend on the Democrats ability to make political hay out of the procedings. I see no reason to think that such would be the case, as the Dems have been handed everything from gay whores doing sleepovers in the West Wing to the Downing Street Memos, and have failed time and again to run with the ball.

Besides, there IS that small matter of what is (through the efforts of Bev Harris and also the recent GAO report) increasingly being shown to be a corrupted electoral process. If your votes aren't being counted as cast, it hardly matters what stage show is going on in the Federal Courts, does it? Besides, the Libby trial will drag on past Bush's tenure. His attorneys will see to it, of that you can rest assured.

Biggest fear is that Fitz could be one of "them".

Does this Judge Reggie Walton seem to be a bit fishy or what?

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/dave3_039.htm

especially since his decision yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR20

06020300381.html?nav=hcmodule

11 months (!!) before the trial can start........ after the elections, funnily enough.....his easy accomodation because just ONE of Libby's defence team lawyers supposedly had a scheduling conflict seems very convenient... after all, it is not as though Libby was just arrested yesterday..... and especially after reading in the Jenkins article, - 'From February 2003 to April 2004, Walton repeatedly scheduled and postponed hearings in the Edmonds case without citing any reason. There was no communication from Walton to Edmonds’ attorneys from October ’03 to April ’04 until a lawsuit on
behalf of one thousand 9/11 families was filed which requested a deposition from Sibel Edmonds. Only then, does Walton move (at the government’s request) to not only quash Edmonds’ subpoena on behalf of the 9/11 families, but also upholds the gag order imposed on her using the State Secrets Privilege.'

I think there are some valid questions raised here that need to be amplified. Something just doesn't feel quite right about this whole thing.
Regards,
Jojam Franc

Impeach the Judge. *

* If the power to impeach them all isn't back in our hands shortly, then the Diebold myth is entirely true, and we may as well just shut up and reconvene in Italy.

"the Dems have been handed everything from gay whores doing sleepovers in the West Wing to the Downing Street Memos, and have failed time and again to run with the ball."

maybe because the dems (and I'm a dem) have a few skeletons in the closet themsleves? The public isn't going to buy the dems as a clean as a whistle party.