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Washington Post national political reporter/Washington Sketch columnist Dana Milbank was online Friday, Oct. 21, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.

The transcript follows.

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Dana Milbank: Good morning.

Tom DeLay is down in Texas this morning, asking for a new judge and a new venue for his money-laundering trial. The millionaire chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Judd Gregg, won $853,492 in the lottery and tells the Post's Mark Leibovich that he is keeping the "majority" of it for himself. Public approval of Congress is at 34 percent.

These are not necessarily unrelated items.

In fact, if things get much worse, Congress will become as unpopular as, er, the media. And yet, we in the press go on about our business no matter how much people dislike or distrust us.

So let us proceed.

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Austin, Tex.: Dana - Thanks for taking the time to do these chats! Question: Are you having the time of your life right now in political reporting? What other stories in your career have reached this level of interest and speculation?

P.S. - Will anyone do time?

Dana Milbank: Thanks for the question, Mr. DeLay.

It is hard to imagine a better political story than the Miers/Fitzgerald/DeLay trifecta. On the other hand, after you've covered the president having an affair outside the Oval Office with a thong-wearing intern, you must accept the fact that the rest of your career will be anticlimactic.

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Ellicott City, Md.: Why was Tom DeLay all smiles? It was quite disturbing as I had never seen video or pictures of him grinning like that before.

Dana Milbank:

If you look at the wide angle of the same mug shot, you can see clearly that Ronnie Earle is tickling DeLay's foot.

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Bethesda, Md.: Reading the comments from former Powell aide Lawrence Wilkerson and so many other prominent Republicans over the past year, I get the feeling the consensus from across the political intelligencia spectrum is that we need a complete overhaul at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Do you that is what Patrick Fitzgerald is trying to accomplish? If so, I wish him godspeed.

Dana Milbank:

A very interesting way of framing things.

Wilkerson's blast at the administration on Wednesday was extraordinary; it's not everyday the recently retired chief of staff at the State Department describes American foreign policy as doo-doo. (He used the s word, which we converted to "manure" in the paper.)

But when you pair that with the conservative reaction to the Miers nomination, you do see a rebellion of the elite conservatives. The White House has pushed back, making the populist argument that Miers's opponents are "elitist." There has always been a deep divide on the right between grassroots, Christian conservatives and the urban conservative commentaries, who have much more in common, socially, with the liberal elites than they admit.

On the other hand, I don't think Fitzgerald has a dog in this fight. I think he's just a prosecutor doing his job.

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Zagazig, Egypt: Why doesn't the U.S. have the hero that can save it from the political and financial predicament that G.W. Bush put it in?!

I'm sure that there is somebody there who can rule the U.S. honestly and who really care about the Americans' interests not his family's or his friends'! Where is he?!!!

Dana Milbank:

He is probably in Zagazig, Egypt. (I don't have an answer for you but I must publish every question that starts with "Zagazig, Egypt."

Perhaps you can lend us Mubarak? I doubt the political dissenters here would be so brazen if he were in charge.

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Philadelphia, Pa.: Dana, Thanks for your time. What do you predict will happen in the Fitzgerald thing? I read where Plame wasn't a covert op and that everything her hubby said was false.

Dana Milbank:

Predictions are perilous, and the fact is nobody except for Fitzgerald and perhaps a couple of others know what he is going to do. But we can conclude that he hasn't been grilling all these people in recent days before the grand jury for the sole purpose of shutting the lights and closing the investigation.

You're wrong about Plame -- she was protected at the CIA by "cover" -- but you're right that Wilson's accounts have been oft-contradicted. On the larger point, the speculation now is that the charges will lean away from the original accusations and toward procedural crimes such as perjury.

All together now: "It's not the crime, it's the coverup."

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Washington, D.C: On the Wilkerson speech: the Seattle Times and Hartford Courant reprinted your story, and the NY Times has a small item today. Otherwise, coverage has been limited to the Financial Times and Newsday. Unlike Clarke and O'Neill/Suskind, Wilkerson's not selling a book, but even so, it seems his speech should have drawn more interest than it has. Any thoughts on why not?

Dana Milbank: Actually, Wilkerson says he would like to publish a book but hasn't lined up a contract yet (I can hear his phone ringing now).

I agree that the Wilkerson story was extraordinary and worthy of more attention. Probably what's going on here is there are so many problems swirling around the administration that this has the whiff of piling on. I don't, incidentally, think Wilkerson is the proverbial rat-on-a-sinking-ship. He was good for a tough quote even when the president was very popular. That either makes him an all-purpose rat -- or, that rarest of things, a man of principle.

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Vienna, Va.: Hi Dana,

Loved couple of your recent writings, especially the one on the President Bush's body language during his interview with NBC on New Orleans trip. My question is related to "Plame Investigation". Jim VandeHei's articles recently have indicated that it was not clear whether Fitzgerald is authorized to release the final report on this investigation. This investigation has clearly touched the inner circles of our government and what we know so far is pretty damning. Can you speculate on the reaction of people if this investigation is wrapped up without any detailed report?

Dana Milbank:

Whatever the legal aspects around a report, it would be politically untenable for Fitzgerald to close his investigation with no indictments and no report.

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Washington, D.C.: So re: the first horse in the trifecta, and Babington's excellent piece this morning, why does the pundit consensus still seem to be that Miers will probably get confirmed? In contrast to Roberts, who was respected and loved by the right, and respected by the left, Miers simply isn't respected or loved by anyone (except W of course, which is itself the subject of mockery).

For the record (and for some reason you heard it here first) Harriet Miers will not be confirmed. She simply doesn't have the goods, and may not even get past the Judiciary committee, much less the full senate.

Anyone else on the bandwagon?

Dana Milbank: Thank you for the question, Senator Specter.

For the record, I am in the office pool predicting that Miers will not become a justice, but because she will withdraw rather than be voted down. The reason the punditry still expects confirmation if the White House decides to proceed is that (enough) Republicans would hold their noses and vote yes to keep the White House from crumbling, and (enough) Democrats would hold their noses and vote yes because they doubt they'd get a less conservative nominee than Miers.

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Alexandria Va., Not Egypt: Hi Dana - go out on a limb and speculate, if you will, the odds that Rove & Libby will get an indictment. Any chance Cheney's name will become drawn further into this?

Dana Milbank:

Close enough, Alexandria.

You don't need me to speculate. Let's check the markets. If I'm reading the contracts on intrade.com correctly, investors see an 80% likelihood of a Libby indictment and a 61% likelihood of a Rove indictment.

That seems a bit high. In fact, after this chat, I'm selling short on both.

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Washington, D.C.: With all the terrorist threats, hurricanes and now even Avian flu, are you worried about the dangers that journalists face in this country today?

Dana Milbank:

You're not kidding. And you don't even mention the danger of sharp objects thrown by editors.

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Colombine, Colo.: I find it most objectionable that media will characterize Harriet Miers as less conservative and thereby more appealing to Democrats.

As the information continues to 'spill' out, it seems that Miers is much more conservative than might be desirable in the matter of Roe v. Wade.

Can there be an honest opinion or evaluation on this?

Dana Milbank:

Well, Miers did clearly state that she was opposed to abortion and would support a constitutional amendment banning it. But that hasn't convinced people on either side of the issue that she would vote to overturn Roe as a legal matter.

There was also this statement she made in 1992 at the ABA:

"When you understand, as I do, that the choice issue is inextricably entwined with the debate of total freedom for women, for empowerment, you fully understand the depth of caring and emotion which accompany the efforts like those in support of this resolution."

That would make me very nervous if I were Sam Brownback.

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Austin, Tex.: Best conspiracy theory you've heard this year?

Dana Milbank:

I see from the Austin dateline that majority leader DeLay is still on this chat.

My favorite was that Judy Miller was the Typhoid Mary of the Plame-Wilson affair: That she was the one that got the information about Plame's role at the CIA and then spread it to people at the White House.

It would seem that theory is inoperative.

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Hamilton, N.J.: Hi Dana - caught you on HARDBALL last night talking about the Wilkerson comments. Do you think that the Cheney-Rumsfield cabal characterization is on target, and to what extent did it serve to squash dissent, and propel a rush to war so there was no opportunity to more carefully scrutinize the WMD issue? You said that Wilkerson believed there were WMD, but the decision making environment did not promote healthy skepticism. And the media seemed to operate in the same mindset.

Dana Milbank: Wilkerson was fairly persuasive on this subject. He points out that even the French were convinced that Iraq had the weapons. Wilkerson's theory was that Hussein was deliberately fooling people, moving things around for the benefit of satellite photos, to convince the Iranians and his own people that he was still powerful.

In that sense, it wouldn't have mattered if there were a cabal or not. Everybody assumed their were weapons -- even the Democrats who looked at the intelligence. That's why I think the media get a bad rap.

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Washington, D.C.: "It's Karl Rove's town and the rest of us just live here." You said that a few months back. Still true?

Dana Milbank: I HATE Nexis!

It is true, in the sense that with Karl Rove distracted, the president, the White House, and everything else here, falls apart. And the permanent loss of Rove would likely lead to profound changes in how the country is governed over the next three years.

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Charlotte, N.C.: Has anyone ever told you that you look like John Travolta?

Dana Milbank:

Usually, I get Rick Moranis.

Anyway, thanks for chatting and speak to you in a fortnight.

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