Strategic Retreat

Tina Brown writes in her Washington Post column from New York: "Manhattan media circles have been so excited by Fitzgerald's silence right up to the eve of the grand jury's term tomorrow that they've forgotten his casting as a First Amendment assassin and turned him into a cross between Philip Marlowe and the Shadow: fearless, honest, independent, laconic and unstoppable."

Howard Kurtz writes in The Washington Post about how "virtually every bit of information, confirmed and alleged, comes from unnamed sources -- ironically, in an investigation of who anonymously outed a CIA operative -- who are trying to shape public understanding of a complicated narrative to someone's advantage."

Michael Scherer writes in Salon about the media scrum, Fitzgerald's own off-the-record statements ("I'm leaving," appears to have been one of them) and the boredom.

"To pass the time, reporters traded theories about what was going on. One cable news producer cradled a walkie-talkie and could be heard at one point saying to an associate at another position in or around the courthouse, 'Red dog, this is Grey Fox.' Another reporter, betraying some frustration, mused about her own profession, 'We sound like such losers, and that's because we are.' "

Meet Susan Ralston

Anne E. Kornblut writes in the New York Times: "At the nexus of two high-profile investigations roiling the nation's capital is an unlikely - and largely anonymous - figure known for fiercely safeguarding her bosses.

"Susan B. Ralston, 38, has worked as an assistant and side-by-side adviser to Karl Rove since 2001, helping manage his e-mail, meetings and phone calls from her perch near his office in the West Wing. That has made her an important witness in the C.I.A. leak investigation, as the special prosecutor has sought to determine whether Mr. Rove misled investigators about his contacts with reporters about Valerie Wilson, the undercover operative whose identity was made public in 2003.

"Ms. Ralston is also entangled in another political scandal: the case of Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist, who employed her in the same frontline capacity during a stretch of time that is now under criminal investigation.

"Ms. Ralston is not considered a suspect in either case, and several close colleagues say it is by sheer accident that she has been swept up in both investigations."

Kornblut writes that Ralston was recently promoted and "functions as Mr. Rove's own chief of staff, coordinating the five groups within the West Wing that he oversees."

First a New Web Site -- Now a New Lease?

I broke the story on Friday about Fitzgerald's new Web site .

Now blogger Steve Clemons writes: "Fitzgerald's office is at 1400 New York Avenue, NW, 9th Floor in Washington.

"What I have learned is that the Office of the Special Counsel has signed a lease this week for expanded office space across the street at 1401 New York Avenue, NW.

"Another coincidence? More office space needed to shut down the operation?

"I think not. Fitzgerald's operation is expanding."

Rove Books

Lloyd Grove writes in the New York Daily News: "Rove biographers Jim Moore and Wayne Slater - who this week are rereleasing their groundbreaking study, 'Bush's Brain,' as a quickie paperback with a new title, 'Rove Exposed: How Bush's Brain Fooled America' - are feverishly at work on 'The Architect,' a brand-new Rove expos for Random House."

Briefing Follies

Here's the transcript of yesterday's press briefing:

"Q Scott, with what looks like indictments pending in the CIA leak investigation, what's the anxiety level like here at the White House? What's the atmosphere in the hallways?

"MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, there's a lot of speculation going around, and I think there are a lot of facts that simply are not known at this point. . . .

"In terms of the White House, this White House is focused on the priorities of the American people. We're working on the priorities that the American people care about. The President has had a very busy day. . . .

"Q What's the anxiety level like as you wait through this process to see what's going to happen?

"MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we've got a lot of work to do, and so we don't have a lot of time to sit back and think about those things.

"Q So you're losing yourself in your work, is that what it is?"

What It Might Be Like In There

Former Clinton staffer Paul Begala writes in the TPMCafe blog: "To be sure, waiting on a decision to indict is an exquisite form of torture. But what lies ahead is worse. If special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald does choose to indict one or more senior Bush White House officials, they will be the first top White House aides to be indicted in a decade and a half.

"This is when a White House staffer earns his pay. The pressure of a federal criminal investigation - especially one in the media spotlight - is bone-crushing. My guess is that the strain is taking a gruesome toll. Already we hear rumors of President Bush exploding at his aides, at the President blaming Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, and anyone else in sight for his woes.

"This I know first hand: when The Boss explodes like that, there are two kinds of aides -- those who fight and those who flee. When he came to Washington, Mr. Bush surrounded himself with tough-minded people who seemed not to be afraid to stand up to him. But now his team is loaded with weak-kneed toadies, and Mr. Bush is home alone."

The Davis-Bacon Turnaround

Griff Witte writes in The Washington Post: "The White House yesterday reversed course and reinstated a key wage protection for workers involved in Hurricane Katrina reconstruction, bowing to pressure from moderate House Republicans who argued that Gulf Coast residents were being left out of the recovery and that the region was becoming a magnet for illegal immigrants."

The wage waiver and measures that made it easier for the government to grant no-bid contracts were the first two concrete attempts by the White House to bake long-sought conservative goals into the Katrina recovery efforts. They have now both been rescinded.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) writes in the TPMCafe blog that Bush had no choice. "I recently wrote on this site about an unprecedented Joint Resolution I introduced last week that would have forced a vote in Congress to overturn the President's wage cut. . . . With the support of every House Democrat and 37 House Republicans, we would have won that vote. Boxed in by that embarrassing scenario, the White House chose to reverse itself."

Economic Talk

Deb Riechmann writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush on Wednesday said he's willing to go along with congressional plans to make further cuts in the budget he submitted in February, saying he's open to making broad-based cuts in agency budgets."

Here's the transcript of his speech to the Economic Club of Washington.

He briefly mentioned Social Security although, as he himself put it: "They told me not to talk about it when I first got up here."

Bush and Vernon Jordan?

Bush had warm words for the Economic Club's president: Vernon Jordan. How weird is that?

Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey write for Newsweek.com: "It's hard to avoid the feeling that Washington has reverted to a state of high scandal (known to defense lawyers as 'serious legal jeopardy'). But it's even harder to avoid that feeling when you see Vernon Jordan introducing the president at a lunchtime event in downtown D.C. The man who played such a central role in L'affaire Lewinsky hosted Bush at an economic pep talk for business execs at a Washington hotel on Wednesday."

They add: "Either Bush was being exceedingly gracious, or his jokemeisters missed Jordan's appearance with one John Kerry last summer. At that time, Jordan was a lot less gracious about Bush at a meeting of the National Urban League. Jordan said he'd worked around several presidents over the course of his long career in public life, and he could draw just one conclusion about George W. Bush. 'I have been around long enough to know a failed presidency when I see one,' he said."

Blogger Humor

Blogger Brad DeLong , writes in one of his signature faux Socratic dialogues:

"Thrasymakhos: . . . [M]y not-understanding is at a very elevated and sophisticated level.

"Glaukon: Do tell: what do you not understand? . . .

"Thrasymakhos: The pointless, boastful lying in the fall of 2003. Cheney: 'I don't even know who Joe Wilson is!' Bush: 'Gee. I really hope they catch those leakers!' When all the while both of them knew that Cheney had launched the leaking campaign and that Rove, Libby, and company were in it up to their necks. It didn't gain them anything. And now it makes them look like the sleazy liars that they are -- and makes them look so in a soundbite simple enough for the media to understand it. That I really don't understand.

"Glaukon: You don't have much experience with fratboys, do you?"