For those of you who were not just near an AM radio let me provide a quick report on the Matt Drudge Sunday night radio show that just aired with Lawrence O'Donnell as a guest answering questions about his disclosures in the Rove inquiry.
O'Donnell stood by his earlier remarks totally. He did not back down one bit. He said that Matt Cooper's notes will show that Rove was his primary source on the Plame matter. O'Donnell further stated that Rove's lawyer only decided to play defense once it was known that O'Donnell's remarks had gone out over the McLaughlin Group air. Rove's lawyer used very technical language in his denials. Further, it would be expected that if Rove is in danger of a perjury rap, the lawyer would be expected to defend the client (read: tell an untruth in a public non-legal statement for the purposes of representing his client to the press). What his lawyer said was not in front of a judge. It was simply a weekend pr effort. Of course he's going to say his client didn't break the law, etc. Duh... In addition to O'Donnell's reiteration of what he posted on the Huffington Post, it was interesting to hear Matt Drudge's reaction to the potential of a Rove indictment--he seemed to take the prospect pretty seriously, and my guess is Drudge will continue to play this story pretty big all summer. This could really heat up, judging by the way everyone was talking.
I think it is clear now that this has moved beyond the question of betraying a US covert agent, and now the prosecutor is going after perjury/obstruction of justice related to the investigation--rather than the original underlying crime. That is pretty standard in these Washington cases.