Cheney: If Fitzgerald can collar Judy, maybe nobody's safe, below, you know, a certain level. Maybe nobody can resist the pressure to crack. Maybe nobody can stick to the agreed upon testimony already given to the grand jury. Under oath. Under penalty—

Libby: Sir, I-I really don't need to come three dozen feet underground to get a lecture on the disadvantages of a felony perjury conviction. Obviously my representatives and I crafted some wiggle room into my testimony; otherwise I'd have, well, less leverage than Salman Rushdie in Mecca.

Cheney: Leverage? With the prosecutor? Scooter, why would a person want leverage if said person weren't planning at some point to attempt to ... leverage it?

Libby: Look, if everybody's still on the same page, you can rest assured that I'm going to be on the same page too, right there with them. On that page.

Cheney: No, if you're talking about the "who told Judy Miller, who told Karl Rove, who told Matt Cooper" page, that's a very good page to be on. That's a page that doesn't mention any constitutional officers, and speaking as someone who took an oath to uphold that constitution, I'd say that's a page you definitely want to be on.

Libby: Well—

Cheney: —and if anybody tried to pressure to get off that page, to get on some other page—

Libby: Sir, sir, straight ahead?

Cheney: Mmm-hmm.

Libby: Working for you, I, I face more pressure every day.

Cheney: I appreciate that.

Libby: But now, on the other hand, if other people in that equation decide to visit their testimony, or lack thereofe, that's obviously when old man leverage may have to roll up his sleeves—

Cheney: Oh, Scooter, spare me the homespun metaphors. I get enough of those from the Bush lad. Here's the deal, and by that I don't mean to imply that there'll be any dealing. Director of Central Intelligence has taken a bullet for us. I don't think you can do any less. Being convicted of a felony hasn't hurt Ollie North's career any. And doing five years of soft time may have helped G. Gordon Liddy's later prospects.

Libby: I-I-I-I won't be in as nice a facility as Judy Miller.

Cheney: You'll be in a fine faciility

Libby: There won't be women in it.

Cheney: We've done harder things, my friend. Don't forget, we brought democracy to the middle east. That ain't bean-bagging.

Libby: No, I-I-I

Cheney: I'm telling you something you already know. You go the other direction, that way lies Paul O'Neil country, only after it's been nuked. Karl's already signed off on that, and it's just a matter of time before the president is brought into the discussion.

Libby: Mister Vice President, I'm uh, I'm a little taken aback, uh, I don't think in all the time I've worked for you, you've ever come remotely close to uh, to threatening me.

Cheney: No, you're correct. First time I've had to. You can let yourself out. Of the residence.

If you have trouble with the Real Media stream, ask me for the podcast mp3. (As far as I'm concerned, the popularity of podcasts is due solely about the convenience of the downloadable, unencumbered mp3 format, as compared to the awful, incompatible, limited streams in Real or Windows Media formats. We should have had podcasting in the last 1990s, and the only reason we didn't was the fear and loathing of the content providers. When regular people started to become content providers en masse, and they were willing to make their content available simply and freely, what a surprise - it took off! Downloads rule, streams suck.)