Demagogue

Thanks to Josh Marshall's plug, I've been reading the excellent Plame coverage of Murray Waas. If you think "Intimigate" is clever but perhaps an overstatement, check out his latest on the grand jury proceedings. Apart from revealing Plame's status--which is to say, apart from what might be criminal behavior--the administration pretty clearly had a dirty tricks operation ongoing to discredit Joseph Wilson by slipping information that they knew to be false to reporters. On a not-for-attribution basis, of course.

And speaking of false information, Waas says that "federal investigators have for some time believed that columnist Novak has very likely lied to shield his sources from potential criminal culpability." I'm not a criminal practitioner and am certainly not familiar with most federal criminal statutes, but if lying with the intent to prevent a guilty person from being prosecuted constituted obstruction of justice (or, to use a great legal term, misprision of a felony), then that might answer the question of why Novak might be entitled to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege in this case.