There have been a lot of diaries today evidencing the... let's call them tensions within and amongst various factions in the progressive community.  Many people have complained that one - or both - of the remaining Democratic candidates is lacking in substance, or momentum, or experience, or money, or detailed plans, etc.  Some Edward supporters are adrift, and many of us who are supporting Clinton or Obama (I'm for Obama, btw) have been too busy boosterizing to have much patience with the undecided.  Now, amid ominous forebodings of credentials disputes and a brokered convention, the Clinton & Obama camps are negotiating several debate invitations.

I, for one, don't need to see any more debates between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  I think I've seen enough of them pitted against each other.  As many pundits and diarists have noted, there's not much daylight between their policy positions, and I don't want to just watch them taking potshots at each other.

You, too?  Join me below the fold....

At this morning's Bush/Blair press conference, Kelly O'Donnell asked Bush about James Comey's recent bombshell.  Specifically, O'Donnell asked whether Bush was the one who dispatched Abu Gonzales and Andy Card to John Ashcroft's hospital bed to get him to authorize some sort of domestic spying operation (at a time when Ashcroft wasn't even the acting Attorney General).  Bush, of course, declined to answer that question.  In fact, the whole administration is getting pretty adept at not answering anyone's questions about anything.

But O'Donnell's question itself sparked something in my memory - a vague recollection that Bush wasn't always so reluctant to talk about the details of his administration's domestic espionage activities. More below...

I don't quite know what to make of this, but I fear that it is not good news: ABC News is reporting as breaking news that John & Elizabeth Edwards will be holding a press conference at Noon tomorrow. This MAY - and I stress MAY - be connected with Mrs. Edwards' health.

Elizabeth Edwards has posted many times on this site, and is, IMHO, a very special, talented, and wise person.  I think we can all recognize that our nation is indebted to the Edwards family for their service to our country.

Regardless of what the press conference is about, please keep the Edwards family in your thoughts (and for those of us so inclined, your prayers).

Reuters is reporting that the SEC has launched an "informal investigation" into how Diebold recognizes its income.

Of course, an "informal investigation" may not necessarily lead anywhere, and of all the reasons to investigate Diebold, its accounting practices would be rather low on my list; nevertheless, I am pleased to see that they are not entirely escaping scrutiny.

I'll delete if someone else has diaried this, but I couldn't find anything.

I know that there is a diary below discussing the Lou Dobbs piece on Able Danger, but I am posting a separate diary to encourage each and every one of you to view Congressman Curt Weldon's full press conference from this afternoon, which is now available for viewing on C-SPAN. (Wikipedia contains a great background article on Able Danger.)

I don't know anything about this Weldon guy, but he certainly seems to be genuinely outraged, and he deserves our support in his call for a criminal investigation into the Administration's ongoing efforts to smear the Able Danger whistleblowers.  Here's Congressman Weldon's website if you'd like to tell him what you think.

I think I've been paying pretty clse attention to Treasongate developments over the last few weeks, but the following quote from Michael Isikoff's new Newsweek article is the first time I can recall seeing any mention of the involvement of Jim Sharp - George W. Bush's personal criminal attorney - in many months.

Hmmm....  I'm trying to keep my tinfoil in the drawer where it belongs, but why would Fitz make a special trip to tell the president's personal criminal attorney about this if he's already told Rove's attorney?

Regardless of whether or not he is indicted today, there is no longer any excuse for Karl Rove to remain on the White House payroll at taxpayer expense.  Through his attorney(s), he has already acknowledged: discussing the identity of an undercover agent with reporters; failing to report breaches of classified national security information; and giving "incomplete" testimony to federal investigators.

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This item from The Washington Note sure seems intriguing:

The new Washington Post article contains this very intriguing sentence:

This answers the question I've seen many times about whether or not Fitz only recently learned about Cheney's role.

Here's what former CIA operative and intelligence expert Larry C. Johnson has to say about the fruits of Fitzgerald's investigation:

If this is true, it will be a Merry Fitzmas for everyone.  What an October surprise!

The Associated Press is reporting that Valerie Plame did NOT work for WINPAC, as Scooter and Judy discussed.  According to the AP, three sources within the CIA have confirmed that Plame instead worked in the CIA's directorate of operations (presumably still in a covert capacity).

Apparently, what this means is that investigators will have a much easier task of tracking the source of Scooter's mis-information.  I'm not sure whether it's good news or bad news, but at this point, I'll take ANY news!

Knight Ridder reports [free registration required] that Sen. Pat Roberts, chair of the Select Senate Committee on Intelligence, has announced that he will NOT be holding hearings on Traitorgate, which he dismisses as a partisan squabble.

This is an abomination.  Our national security and intelligence resources are in the hands of administration officials who have shown complete contempt for the responsibilities they hold, and Roberts views this as a partisan issue?!?  Let's tell the good Senator what we think of all this by contacting him at his offices.  

Sidney Blumenthal has a great new article in Salon.com, which deftly summarizes the whole sorry Plamegate mess.  I was particularly struck by the penultimate paragraph.  It describes a CNN interview in which Wolf Blitzer asked RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman if he had attended any meetings at the White House on "how to deal with [Ambassador Joseph] Wilson."  Mehlman's cryptic response: "I don't recall those meetings occurring."  Hmmm....

If Ken Mehlman hasn't been hauled before the grand jury yet, he certainly should be.  Does anyone here have any scuttlebut on whether Fitzgerald is pursuing this potentially weak link?

Ken Mehlman has issued a statement attempting to control damage from the news of Karl Rove's leak(s).  According to Mehlman, poor Karl Rove was just doing his patriotic best to keep the liberal news media from printing inaccurate information - undermining national security and committing crimes was the farthest thing from his mind.  

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