First, A Smoking Pen, Then A Smoking Gun

Please tell me that his intentions are not to leave the world a smoking ruin.

The Smoking Pen: "The notes also offer an insight into Cheney's state of mind. It's an often overlooked aspect of this case that the objective of alerting reporters to the identity of Wilson's wife was to imply that his trip was some sort of nepotistic plum.

But what kind of person would think that a secret mission to the landlocked, impoverished and generally benighted country of Niger is a junket? Either someone quite delusional -- or someone so caught up in the desire to punish and ruin his enemies that the preposterousness of the accusation doesn't really make a difference.

This is notably not the first time that Cheney himself has been spotted at the nerve center of the Plame case. Rove is said to have initially told the grand jury he first heard about Plame from some reporter -- then he said he heard it from Libby. Libby is said to have initially told the grand jury he first heard about Plame from reporters -- but Libby's own notes showed he first heard about her from Cheney.

Michael Isikoff , apparently the first reporter to spot Fitzgerald's filing, wrote Saturday on Newsweek's Web site: 'The role of Vice President Dick Cheney in the criminal case stemming from the outing of White House critic Joseph Wilson's CIA wife is likely to get fresh attention as a result of newly disclosed notes showing that Cheney personally asked whether Wilson had been sent by his wife on a 'junket' to Africa. . . .

'It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for Cheney's own notes to be made public. The notes -- apparently obtained as a result of a grand jury subpoena -- would appear to make Cheney an even more central witness than had been previously thought in the criminal probe.'"

I always thought he was at the heart of the matter, providing fuel for the fire, so to speak. Darth Cheney forgot the old adage...Oh what a tangled web we weave, if at first we practice to deceive, or as Princess Leia put it so succinctly told Grand Moff Tarkin. "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

Enjoy your free time. It might not be as much as you think. Laws are not made to be broken. Not even by you.

Tags: Cheney, Darth Cheney, Froomkin, Princess Leia, Plamegate