The Worm Turns. Again.

Regarding the CIA leak investigation, and last night's bombshell from the Washington Post, this was always an odd piece of information:

In any case, Fitzgerald made another visit early Friday morning—shortly before the grand jury voted to indict Dick Cheney's top aide, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby—to the office of James Sharp, President George W. Bush's own lawyer in the case, to tell him the president's closest aide would not be charged.

So, we're supposed to walk away with the sense that Patrick Fitzgerald went to the offices of Bush's personal criminal attorney simply to let them know the heat was off Karl. Okay.

But then comes last night's surprise news that Bob Woodward is actually knee-deep in all of this (yeah, I know. I'm shocked too), and that his testimony to Fitzgerald came (according to Woodward's statement) when he:

...was first contacted by Fitzgerald's office on Nov. 3 after one of these officials went to Fitzgerald to discuss an interview with me in mid-June 2003 during which the person told me Wilson's wife worked for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction as a WMD analyst.

I have not been released to disclose the source's name publicly.

November 3rd. Less than a week after Fitzgerald announced the indictment against Libby, implicated Rove, and implied an active role for Cheney. Less than a week after the special prosecutor paid a visit to Bush's criminal lawyer.

Now we know, according to Woodward, that the "Senior Administration Official" who leaked Plame's identity to Woodward is not Scooter Libby. And we know too, that:

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Rove, said that Rove is not the unnamed official who told Woodward about Plame and that he did not discuss Plame with Woodward.

As implicated as Cheney seems to be in the language of the indictment, the Washington street was not abuzz with news of his criminal attorney meeting with Fitzgerald, but rather the fact that the prosecutor had called upon Bush's lawyer.

One can't help but wonder.