Russertgate

Swopa says:

And perhaps not coincidentally, by late July I was seeing signs of a Bushite PR counteroffensive to "prepare the media battlefield" for possible Plame indictments. Did Cooper and/or Russert tip off their sources in the administration that the feds were closing in on them, pushing the matter to a judicial decision that prosecutors were likely to win?

It would certainly help explain the sudden churning of the GOP smoke machine. As those who lived through the heady Clinton-era days of Lewinskymania may recall, one of the buried scandals then was grand inquisitor Ken Starr citing journalists as "confidential informants" in a court document. Has that unholy alliance raised its head again?