White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and New York Times reporter Judith Miller went back to the grand jury this week. Appearing before a federal grand jury for the second time, Miller revealed the existence of another, undisclosed conversation with Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. The conversation suggests that there may have been a concerted effort to disclose Plame's identity in an attempt to discredit her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson, you'll recall, published an op-ed in The New York Times in 2003 in which he criticized the Bush administration's intelligence regarding the war in Iraq. A scant week later, Chicago Tribune columnist and SEHDE Villain of the Forever Robert Novak revealed very non-chalantly that Wilson's wife was a CIA agent, an act that was probably a violation of federal law.

And remember Bill Frist? The Senate majority leader's shares in HCA, the nation's largest private hospital corporation, which was founded by his father, were mysteriously sold in 2005 right before the company's stock value dropped by nine percent. While Frist maintains that the shares were in a blind trust so that there would not be any conflict of interest between Frist's stock holdings and legislation Frist may have voted for that could directly affect the price of that stock, onlookers were correctly skeptical, and Frist is being investigated for insider trading (the use of inside knowledge about a company's business and finances to make decisions about buying or selling the securities of that company). Now it appears as though Frist accumulated shares of HCA stock outisde of the blind trust. Frist was part of a partnership called Bowling Avenue Partners, which held shares of HCA stock outside the scope of Frist's Senate-approved blind trust. Frist's brother, Thomas, was in control of Bowling Avenue Partners. Frist was required to place his shares of HCA stock in a blind trust when he joined the Senate because of a possible conflict of interest. But why did he hold shares of HCA that were outside the blind trust? Answer: because he thought he could get away with it. Frist will be indicted for insider trading. Oh, yes.

And Tom DeLay's lawyer has put Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle on the defensive, attempting to subpoena Earle for improperly seeking charges against DeLay. The judge in this case is on vacation, so no orders have been handed down. Aren't public officials ususally immune from prosecution like this?