There is breaking news on MSNBC of increased terrorist warnings for the New York City subways. It’s not clear to me where this threat is coming from. Combined with Bush’s “they’re still out to get us” speech from this morning, I am (shall we say) skeptical. (Hey! Over here! Terrorism! Don’t look at Karl Rove, look at terrorism! Look heeeeere!)

Still, my daughter rides the subways every day. Four years after September 11, and the subways are no more secure than before.

BTW, this is the post I was going to write about Bush’s speech, but Bob Cesca wrote it first.

By now you’ve probably heard that Karl volunteered to go testify some more for Patrick Fitzgerald. Gettin’ twitchy there, Karl? Speculation is that Karl got a target letter from Fitzgerald and believes indictments are on the way.

According to Lawrence O’Donnell,

Fitzgerald does not have to send Rove or anyone else a target letter before indicting him. The only reason to send target letters now is that Fitzgerald believes one or more of his targets will flip and become a prosecution witness at the pre-indictment stage. A veteran prosecutor told me, “If Fitzgerald is sending target letters at the end of his investigation, those are just invitations to come in and work out a deal.”

Prosecutors prefer pre-indictment plea bargaining to post-indictment because they have more to offer you, like not being indicted at all or downgrading your status to unindicted co-conspirator. And pre-indictment plea bargaining can greatly enrich the indictments that the prosecutor then obtains. If, for example, Fitzgerald has a weak case against, say, Scooter Libby, imagine how much Rove’s cooperation might strengthen that case.

The theory that Karl might flip Scooter is especially tantalizing, considering this theory that Scooter Libby’s famous letter to the imprisoned Judy Miller was an attempt at coaching. Mickey Kaus came up with this one.

The Aspens Sleep With the Fishes: Is it just me or is this sentence in Cheney aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s letter to reporter Judith Miller regarding the Plame-leak case just a little too suggestive of how she might want to testify:

Because, as I am sure will not be news to you, the public report of every other reporter’s testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame’s name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call.

(The suggestion, of course, would be that this is how Miller might also testify–e.g. no discussion of “Plame’s name or identity”–unless she wants to stand out from the pack as someone who contradicts Libby’s defense.) … P.S.: Libby’s letter ends, somewhat mysteriously, with this sentence:

Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them.

And you know what happens to the aspens that sever their deep connections and fail to turn with all the others, don’t you, my little pretty? …

While we’re all just speculating, do you think Karl would flip somebody higher up than Scooter to save his own skin? Or will Karl fall on his sword to protect his boy?