the champagne of legal commentary...

My conclusions are that the prosecutor is aiming at Novak, Rove, and possibly Cooper for obstruction of justice in that Rove lied to the prosecutor or Novak and Rove conspired to obstruct justice during the week after the announcement of the investigation. There apparently were an unusual number of calls between the two in the week after the announcement - i.e. getting their story straight. I have kind of put my feelings about the First Amendment behind me, but this explains why the prosecutor was going after the journalists so hard.

As for Novak, he flipped right away. There is a story floating out there today. My judgment is out on the prosecutor - this guy is really, really intense. He is a republican, however you must remember that when you lie to a federal prosecutor you are in a lot of trouble. The prosecutor is keeping his cards very, very close to his chest. He needed Miller and Cooper to contradict the story Novak and Rove spoon fed him. The word on the street (well, on the blogs and in the office) is that Novak and Rove gave him a nice little packaged story (i.e. "Rove just told me she was with the CIA but didn't use her name and i made everything else up from research", thus avoiding that law they mention) and the prosecutor didn't buy it.