Rove/Plame: Payback time, continued

Since the first leg of the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation marathon concluded Friday before last with the indictment of Scooter Libby, there's been little new in the way of leaks about the case. That likely won't change any time soon. Meanwhile, though, there's more fallout from the animosity the Bush/Cheney White House has sewn at the CIA and within the ranks of its own party and staff (more about that here):

Mike Allen writes in this week's Time that Karl Rove's resignation is starting to look inevitable, whether he's indicted or not. The buzz for some time has been that chief of staff Andrew Card heads a faction that wants Rove out (check out Howard Fineman's words in this Hardball transcript; via Billmon).

Elsewhere, an early gambit in the White House's counter-offensive to the leak investigation has been blown out of the water by a prominent Republican, Trent Lott--the man shoved aside as Senate majority leader in favor of the administration's choice, Bill Frist. Last week, officials of the Porter Goss-led CIA had asked the Justice Department for an investigation of who leaked the information about secret CIA jails contained in Dana Priest's November 2 WashPost article. The Republican leaders of the Senate and House, Frist and Denny Hastert, raised the prospect of hearings. But then Lott spoke up yesterday and said it was most likely a Republican senator who had released the information to the Post. Is there anyone who seriously supposes it wasn't John McCain?