Free Republic

Those who despise George Bush see him as the Second Coming of Richard Nixon, and they wish for nothing more fervently than a Second Going: a Watergate-magnitude scandal that will drive him from office. Their last best hope is Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, appointed two years ago to investigate the CIA's complaint that Valerie Plame's CIA employ had been leaked to columnist Robert Novak, seemed destined to disappoint them. A month ago, even a week ago, it was possible without delusion to believe that Fitzgerald's investigation would end without indictments. But no longer. Thanks to a stream of leaks that have...

<p>BUSH CONTACTS OUTSIDE ATTORNEY IN LEAK CASE: ABC News' Kate Snow reports that President Bush has contacted an outside attorney in case over leak of name of CIA operative Valerie Plume, wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson...</p>

By DAVID JOHNSTON and RICHARD W. STEVENSON WASHINGTON, April 1 — Prosecutors investigating whether someone in the Bush administration improperly disclosed the identity of a C.I.A. officer have expanded their inquiry to examine whether White House officials lied to investigators or mishandled classified information related to the case, lawyers involved in the case and government officials say. In looking at violations beyond the original focus of the inquiry, which centered on a rarely used statute that makes it a felony to disclose the identity of an undercover intelligence officer intentionally, prosecutors have widened the range of conduct under scrutiny and...