FITZGERALD'S ANNOUNCEMENT

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will release documents in the CIA leak probe at 11 a.m. Central. Expect them to be posted on Fitzgerald's web site.

Fitzgerald will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. Central. Now you've got your day planned. And just think, we'll finally be able to hear Fitzgerald's voice.

The allegedly wise men and women of the Washington press corps have come to this consensus:

•Indictment for Lewis "Scooter" Libby casts a bad and long shadow on Vice President Dick Cheney.

•Karl Rove might escape indictment today, but being under "continued investigation" basically freezes the administration. President Bush can't make a speech and get the scandal behind him, so long as his right arm is mired in investigation.

8:45 a.m. update: The "Rove remains under investigation" rumor (tidbit, factoid, leak) indicates that Fitzgerald may still be fishing, and could be trying to flip potential defendants. Also missing from this morning's news flurry is any mention of any other indictments, outside of Libby.

9:05 a.m. update: Fugging Andrea Mitchell, the NBC correspondent, made a jaw-dropping statement just now on MSNBC. She told Chris Matthews that "now we finally know" the roles of Libby and Rove in this scandal. What a steaming pile. Reporters like Mitchell have known what's going on for two years; Mitchell was interviewed in the leak probe. For the past couple years, any number of reporters in Washington could have stood up in a White House briefing and said, "Hey, stop the horsecrap. We know who leaked. They leaked to us." They didn't back then, and now they want to "come clean." Fug 'em.

Urgent update 9:10 a.m. Looks like the 11 a.m. document release will be accompanied by some sort of statement from Fitzgerald's office.

Update 9:40 a.m. David Gergen, wise man of Washington, says even if Rove isn't indicted today, he's a "distraction" to the White House. "This is a very mixed bag for the White House," Gergen told MSNBC. "I don't see where they go with new initiatives to climb out of the hole." Man, if this is the best that Gergen can do for a GOP administration, then things are really very bad inside the White House.

There is also this to consider. The 11 a.m. document dump could well include "information" filed against a defendant or defendants. One indictment could cover several defendants, too. Rove's lawyer announced Friday morning that "no decision" has been made by Fitzgerald on whether to indict Rove. In other words, no new news from the president's right arm.