An analysis of the leak story in MSM by one of my buds who works in the industry

Actually, the gist of the coverage (as it will morph tomorrow, I assume) will focus on how the selective leaking/declassification of parts of the 2003 NIE report wasn't actually what happened. What happened is that Libby went and told Miller stuff he SAID was on the 2003 NIE report that bolsters the case that Iraq was trying to get nuclear weapons, when that in no way was an accurate description of what that particular NIE report actually said. So Libby went to give Miller something special that was declassified just for her, not for Congress, not for the American people, and it wasn't even what was on the report. All it did was specifically attempt to discredit Joe Wilson, a political move. There will be no mercy shown to the Bush administration for such a fuck up, the latest WashPo editorial be damned. Apologists are out in force, and they sound as silly as DeLay's religious homilies the day he announced his resignation.

Here is how the coverage has evolved in MSM since the story broke.

First, NYSun, (conservative paper), here's the document on Libby's testimony, he implicates Cheney and Bush.

Next morning, Dems and all major papers (and news programs that cover the paper's headlines), all over "Leaker in Chief" (thank you Jane Harmon) and all the fun Bush quotes condemning leakers.

Spinners fan out at the same time, trying to make the point that Bush can declassify anything he wants, because he classifies. Case is, a shop owner can't shoplift from himself. So all the criticism focuses on Bush's hypocrisy.

Friday afternoon: the Scott McClellan show, and it wasn't pretty. I'm sure McClellan left that day with big brown patches in his underwear, but even so, no one believed him. Fox News, btw, didn't even carry the White House Briefing live.

Weekend: it's starting to come out that with closer analysis, even tho the president CAN declassify anything he wants, he still has a procedure to follow, and of course, altho no one says he did it, he also should not be endangering the lives of CIA agents by outing them. Why didn't he follow the procedure? So now they're calling it his "defacto informal declassification."

Blogs debate and WashPo editorial I think is silly, but I refuse to read it. Right-wing blog spinners are generating much sound and fury, pouring out a ton of rhetoric, and TPM, I think pointed to one of the worst examples of how stupid they are in trying to make rhetoric sound like actual reasoning. They merely preach to their choir.

Sunday morning news programs refused to touch the issue with any substance and instead hunkered down on immigration. Why? I think because they view the story as jello that hasn't set, and to some extent they're right. This next week should be a decent ride. Senators will be home, getting an earful from constituents.

What to expect this week? Well, for one, some polls will come out, and they'll reflect the bloodbath the GOP has become. I won't say for certain, but I expect some Bush approval numbers, probably Zogby, to fall below 30%.

There has to be an official White House response to the issue, beyond the "we won't comment on an ongoing legal issue," which was McClellan's hapless shield on Friday. There will be key people making phone calls to the White House, just as they did with Cheney's shooting incident, making sure that the White House KNOWS the pressure to respond CANNOT be dodged. Folks at the White House will start going around looking like they're getting bare-ass spankings from their FRIENDS on private phone calls.

Also, I'd expect calls for some hearings this week. May not BE any hearings, but Specter is already floating it, and Dems are of course all over it.

Mostly, what I expect this week is a bit of a snowball effect. We still have not parsed out all the implications of this story, and more will come out.

When two weeks are up, and Senators return (some might come back early, cooking up schemes), I think they'll have fires lit under their asses, and they'll start going after the Bush administration like their political futures depend on it, which they do. They House may be lost, but as they go home and polls come out, Senators will understand that the Senate could be lost as well.