Being and Nothingness

NYT : "The special counsel in the C.I.A. leak inquiry met for more than three hours with the federal grand jury on Wednesday and later talked privately with the district judge in the case as the White House waited out another day in the expectation of possible indictments."

WP : "The prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation presented a summary of his case to a federal grand jury yesterday and is expected to announce a final decision on charges in the two-year-long probe tomorrow, according to people familiar with the case."

Wall Street Journal: "Joe Lockhart, the former Clinton administration press secretary, brought a coat and tie to work, expecting to be in demand for television interviews.

"Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada thought about canceling a press conference on terrorism, afraid it would be drowned out in the din of breaking news. John Podesta, head of the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank, was lined up for interviews with eight broadcasters.

"And then . . . nothing happened."

Salon's Michael Scherer has a fascinating glimpse of the Fitzgerald Watch:

"After nearly two years of official, leak-proof silence, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald revealed one thing Wednesday: He is willing to talk to reporters off-the-record.

"But it also became clear that he may be a bit out of practice as to the custom of speaking off-the-record. Typically, the source and the reporter must agree first to the terms of the discussion. Once agreed, the reporter must be prepared to go to his or her grave, or at least to the door of Fitzgerald's grand jury room, to keep that pledge. (See: Miller, Judith; Cooper, Matt.) "Fitzgerald's technique was a bit cruder. At two points near midday, he could be seen by passersby barreling down the first-floor hallway of the U.S. District Court in Washington, asking an entire pack of reporters, and presumably the passing public in earshot, to treat his comments as 'off-the-record.' "This reporter was present for the second hallway sprint when Patrick Fitzgerald went 'off-the-record.' It was a chaotic scene shortly after 1 p.m. With aides at his side, he walked at a brisk clip surrounded by more than a dozen scribes, one from nearly every major newspaper and network, many of them barking questions as they chased him. Though your faithful scribe had no opportunity to agree to Fitzgerald's off-the-record request, let alone make eye contact with him, you will not find the words he spoke here. Prosecutor Fitzgerald, of course, is not someone to argue with about the technicalities of reporter-source communications. He said a few words, and then he walked out the courthouse door. Before anyone could catch his or her breath, Fitzgerald had already made his way into the back seat of a champagne-colored Crown Victoria, which whisked him away.

"It can also be recorded in these pages that rumors had already been making the rounds through the courthouse for nearly an hour about the substance of the first 'off-the-record' utterance, a major event by the man who holds the nation's political future in his briefcase. Apparently, he had said, 'I'm leaving,' according to several secondhand accounts. In other words, Fitzgerald appears to have told reporters, 'off-the-record,' that his session behind closed doors with the grand jury was done for the day. There would not be, at least immediately, a press conference at the courthouse steps. No frog marching of I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby or Karl Rove. No relief to the weeks of building speculation over the fate of the Bush White House."

Well, that tasted great, but it wasn't very filling, was it?

Slate's Tim Noah says the media emperor has no clothes:

"I know no better indicator of the current mood in Washington than this news story from the International Herald Tribune (via the New York Times Web site). The headline reads, 'No Announcement From Leak Counsel as Deadline Approaches.' The story is a cri de coeur about the absence of an indictment in the White House investigation. It's content-free and utterly useless except as a sign that newspapers are very anxious to learn what will happen. On this topic, even the absence of news is news!