The plot thickens...

As we learned last night on Countdown, Bloomberg is reporting this morning that Karl Rove's and Scooter Libby's testimony to the grand jury differs from that of Tim Russert and Robert Novak:

Two top White House aides have given accounts to a special prosecutor about how reporters first told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to people familiar with the case.

Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC News reporter Tim Russert of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, one person said. Russert has testified before a federal grand jury that he didn't tell Libby of Plame's identity, the person said.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated columnist Robert Novak, according a person familiar with the matter. Novak, who was first to report Plame's name and connection to Wilson, has given a somewhat different version to the special prosecutor, the person said.

These discrepancies may be important because Fitzgerald is investigating whether Libby, Rove or other administration officials made false statements during the course of the investigation. The Plame case has its genesis in whether any administration officials violated a 1982 law making it illegal to knowingly reveal the name of a covert intelligence agent.

So someone isn't telling the truth here. Of course the wingnuts will claim that it's Novak and Russert who are lying, because their worldview won't allow for this Administration doing anything wrong, let alone this corrupt. And frankly, if I were Tim Russert, I'd be nervous lately. After almost five years of lobbing softballs at Bush Administration officials on Press the Meat, he seems to have run out of patience with being an apologist for utter horseshit, as evidenced by his neat evisceration of Ken Mehlman last Sunday. That could be dangerous for him, because now he's crossed the Family, and the Family does not like to be crossed.

If there's any way for the Bush Junta to turn the tables on these news guys who have been their loyal lackeys for so long, now that they've outlived their usefulness, they will.