The envelope, please

The Fitzgerald thing is driving me nuts.

There are so many tantalizing bits of speculation floating around, the majority of which are probably wrong, but the ones that almost gives me goosebumps is:

almost all of the members of the White House Iraq Group have been questioned by Fitzgerald. "The team, which included senior national security officials, was created in August 2002 to 'educate the public' about the risk posed by weapons of mass destruction on Iraq.

and

"Evidence is building that the probe conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald, special prosecutor, has extended beyond the leaking of a covert CIA agent's name to include questioning about the administration's handling of pre-Iraq war intelligence."

Top of the list of all things Festus has done to piss me off hopping mad was the manipulation of intelligence to sell us into going to war with Iraq. Largely because I fell for it lock, stock and barrel, but partly because it's sorta dangerous to have a president making up sh*t to justify doing whatever he wants.

But possibly even better than going into the whole stovepiped intel thing is the suggestion that before Festus leaves the White House:

Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame's husband, and Wilson "said that once the criminal questions are settled, he and his wife may file a civil lawsuit against Bush, Cheney and others seeking damages for the alleged harm done to Plame's career.

"If they do so, the current state of the law makes it likely that the suit will be allowed to proceed -- and Bush and Cheney will face questioning under oath -- while they are in office. The reason for that is a unanimous 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against then- President Clinton could go forward immediately, a decision that was hailed by conservatives at the time."

Oh, my, God. The poetic justice of it all. Can you say "politics of destruction"?