It appears that
Comey appointed his replacement. Comey appointed David Margolis. Comey appointed someone he can trust to not interefere in his friend's investigation. Maybe Fitz saw this coming and told Comey to appoint someone who was loyal to him and trusted to see this through.
Comey made the designation of Margolis. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has stepped aside from the probe because he was White House counsel when Valerie Plame's name was leaked in 2003 and he has testified to the grand jury investigating the unauthorized disclosure.
Comey gave broad discretion to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago when he was appointed to investigate the leak in December 2003. Margolis is not expected to alter Fitzgerald's mandate in what are likely to be the final months of his investigation. The grand jury ends its term in October.
Bush must be pissed that he wasn't able to nominate his neocon fratboy to the post. Ishkoff was probably right in his report that Bush wanted to nominate Robert McCallum. But Shrub and Rove didn't see this coming. With Flanigan stuck in the Senate, this guy should be in place at least until Fitz is finished.
This is huge because Bush won't be able to interfere with the investigation like he wanted to. He won't have a buddy on the inside giving information to Rove and Libby about what Fitz has on them. So much for Rove being too smart for Fitz. It's obvious that Fitz is too smart for Rove.