Fitz don't fail us now

Before retiring last night I flipped on CNN Headline News for a few minutes to see what Friday night releases had been snuck into the news cycle. What I saw was National Security Adviser Steven Hadley standing in front of a press gaggle defending the Iraq war. While this is nothing unusual for this administration, what really struck me was how Hadley looked - he was haggard, his hair a bit mussed and his suit looking for all the world as if he'd slept in it. There are visible bags under his eyes. Why so rumpled, Steve?

Putting Hadley out in the limelight to pitch administration talking points is a rather odd thing to do in the first place. To give credit where it is due, Hadley is unlike most of Bush's crony appointments. He has a deep and serious background in intelligence, and was originally placed as Condi's deputy NSA - probably to shore up her somewhat thinner qualifications in that area - before being bumped up to the top NSA spot when she became Secretary of State. But as suited as he may be for the job, he's not the kind of guy you want on television flaking for you. He's an uncomfortable public speaker who tends to stammer and use a lot of "ummms" and pauses. So why is he out on the Bush dog and pony show circuit?

It may have something to do with this news. Yesterday, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald empanelled a whole new grand jury for the CIA leak probe. Fitz has already told us that his work wasn't finished - it was just a fact that the maximum time limit for the last jury had been reached. Hadley's office (including Condi, along with the rest of the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG) has been increasingly viewed as being under scrutiny, both in the outing of Valerie Plame and as the conduit for the discredited Niger uranium documents reaching Bush's office in the runup to the war.

In a new court filing, Fitzgerald said sensitive information from his investigation still needs to be protected, especially since proceedings will involve a different jury than the one that indicted former Lewis Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney.

The panel hearing that part of the inquiry expired that day.

There's also this speculation that Bob Woodward, having recently thrust himself into the middle of the Plame leak investigation, may have had his secret source inside of Steve and Condi's office. When asked to comment on his still undisclosed source, Woodward takes pains to keep referring to them as "him or her" which we didn't see in the earlier investigation. As one comment to Kevin Drum's analysis put it, "Karen Hughes goes up in the betting pool. Or Condi Rice." The office of the NSA is at the very top of the food chain and was the heart of WHIG. Condi and her staff had Bush's ear more than virtually anyone else besides Rove and Hughes. If Fitzgerald finds a thread to pull which leads directly to that office, Bush himself is in the crosshairs.

In any event, Hadley, never the most graceful and composed public speaker, is looking pretty haggard these days. That's with good reason, I suspect. I also believe it's a name you're going to be seeing a lot more of in days to come. Stay tuned, sports fans. The Fitz game is far from over.