Rove/Plame: two theories

The past several days have seen a steady trickle of details regarding Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation--the State Department memo of July 7, 2003 that identified Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA agent; Rove's July 11 email to Stephen Hadley; Matt Cooper's turn on Meet the Press; Bush's declaration he'd fire anybody who "committed a crime" (not really a modification of his past position, writes Tim Noah)--but nothing that changes the public outlines of the case.

Theorists have been leaping into the breach. A couple of the more intriguing ones have appeared recently at Buzzflash and Antiwar.com. Buzzflash opines that Judy Miller is the last domino in the matter. John Solomon of the AP wrote last week that "Rove told the grand jury that by the time Novak had called him, he believes he had similar information about Wilson's wife from another member of the news media but he could not recall which reporter had told him about it first, the person said."

A Buzzflash editorial sent round over the weekend theorized that Rove's other early contact was with Judith Miller, the only subpoeanaed reporter who has not spoken to the grand jury, and that Miller's silence is serving to conceal the fact that Rove had "heard" about Plame's status from a reporter only because he had first planted the news with the chummy, plugged-in Miller, who put it on the DC press corps grapevine.

Theory number two: Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com is inclined to think that, so far as direct knowledge of Plame's undercover status is concerned, Rove really was a dupe--of CIA infighters working out of Dick Cheney's office. (Yesterday he posted a very good anti-Miller screed that's a veritable bibliography of relevant links.)