I've heard differently than TNR's Michael Crowley. Gossip on the Hill that I've heard is that the presumed CIA black site prisons source was in fact one of the nine Senators who voted against the McCain amendment. The motive was something like "up and coming" Republican hot shot sort of thing. And that the people who called for an investigation did not realize that it hadn't come from the CIA, but allegedly from a Republican Senate source at the time they made the call for it. After word of the Frist-Hastert call for investigation came out yesterday, staffers were turning to each other in amazement, "Do these guys realize what glass houses they are living in?" Then Lott made his comments that the story must have come from one of the Republican Senators briefed last week on it by Cheney. And Frist seemed to indicate he had never really signed such a letter calling for an investigation. In any case, I think Sen. Lindsey Graham gets the big picture in this case. Update: More from The Hill and the Post. And a very good NYT editorial. And don't miss Jack Shafer's Taking a Leak. Lott confused?

Posted by Laura at November 9, 2005 03:57 PM