If It Does Not Fit, You Must Acquit

There is a new anti-Plamegate talking point making the rounds, aided by Scooter Libby's lawyers (fine folks, all), that tries to imply that the revelations about Bob Woodward's role in the scandal (that he early on learned about Plame from an administration official) somehow contradicts or invalidates Fitzgerald's indictment of Libby. This, like all good talking points, is of course untrue and planned to distract an easily-distractable media.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo debunks this:
(November 17, 2005 -- 12:04 AM EST

...Fitzgerald chose his words carefully. He didn't state as a fact that Libby was the first government official to leak Plame's identity. Nor did he hang any of his indictment on Libby's having been the first.

What he said is that Libby's was the earliest instance he'd found of an official leaking Plame's identity.

In truth, this whole point seems like a tempest in a teapot. For better or worse, I doubt that precisely what Fitzgerald said about who was first will play any role at Libby's trial. But it seems worth running this bit of imprecision to ground before it becomes a 'fact' by endless repetition.