Bush Talks About the Bubble

Even with the foreigners Bush likes, "he doesn't really have a genuine give-and-take. Most conversations are brief, scripted and perfunctory. The president rarely talks to any foreign leader to get his opinions or assessment of events."

The Ombudsman and Me

In Sunday's Washington Post, the paper's new ombudsman, Deborah Howell , writes about criticism of this column. My response is posted on post.blog, washingtonpost.com's blog about the web site's features and news decisions. Please feel free to read my response and comment on it.

Fitzgerald Watch

Viveca Novak writes her own first-person story in Time, divulging all sorts of new details about her role in special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's CIA investigation.

Novak writes that she had three informal meetings with Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, in January, March and May of 2004. She doesn't recall at which one she told Luskin that she'd heard Rove was one of fellow reporters Matt Cooper's secret sources for his story about Valerie Plame.

The headline for media watchers is that even after learning that she was being drawn into the investigation -- and even after being interviewed by Fitzgerald for the first time in early November -- Novak didn't tell her editors anything and kept writing about the case as if nothing was going on. It was only after Fitzgerald summoned her for a second interview, this one under oath, that Novak enlightened her superiors. She's now on leave.

"Unrealistically, I hoped this would turn out to be an insignificant twist in the investigation and also figured that if people at Time knew about it, it would be difficult to contain the information, and reporters would pounce on it--as I would have," Novak writes.

Now, she explains: "Luskin is unhappy that I decided to write about our conversation, but I feel that he violated any understanding to keep our talk confidential by unilaterally going to Fitzgerald and telling him what was said."

Too bad she didn't feel that way six weeks ago.

Luskin is now arguing that it was her revelation that ultimately led to Rove's remembering that he did in fact talk to Cooper, and recanting his earlier testimony that he hadn't.

Carol D. Leonnig and Jim VandeHei write in The Washington Post: "Sources close to the case said one of the biggest pieces of unfinished business is whether to indict Rove -- and that a decision could come as early as this month.

"The sources, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are under order from Fitzgerald not to discuss the case, said Luskin told the prosecutor about the Novak conversation a few days before Libby was indicted on Oct. 28.

"It was only part of what the sources described as a furious, last-minute effort by Luskin to convince the prosecutor that Rove was guilty of nothing more than a bad memory -- and certainly not of trying to cover up his role in the Plame case. Of the information presented by Luskin that day, the Novak conversation is the only piece known to require additional investigation. Now that Fitzgerald has deposed Luskin and Novak, some close to the case think Rove's fate could soon be known."