Serpentine, Shel!

Looks like BushCo is gearing up for some bad news this week, and thus trying to throw a knuckler into the mix with an announcement that should get some big headlines for at least a day: Greenspan's replacement as head of the Federal Reserve. Good luck with that, gang.

In other attempts to turn the tables on what looks to be a very gloomy week, the parade of Right Wing Noise Machine Talking Heads started yesterday with Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison downplaying this whole potential perjury angle in the looming Fitzgerald case (which was a bit of a flip-flop, according to Think Progress). Salon has a bit of fun with it as well:

When Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison went on "Meet the Press" over the weekend, she tried to equate the Valerie Plame investigation with the prosecution of Martha Stewart. Maybe she had Bill Frist on the mind.

Just to remind the good senator from Texas, the Plame case involves the outing of a CIA agent amid charges that the president lied about the reasons for a war that has claimed the lives of 1,997 American troops. The Martha Stewart prosecution involved charges that a woman famous for her homemaking skills lied about a stock sale that saved her $51,000.

Oh yeah, speaking of the Right Reverend Dr. Bill Frist, seems that his own attempts at playing serpentine with the public might be coming to an end:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was given considerable information about his stake in his family's hospital company, according to records that are at odds with his past statements that he did not know what was in his stock holdings.

Managers of the trusts that Frist once described as "totally blind," regularly informed him when they added new shares of HCA Inc. or other assets to his holdings, according to the documents.
[...]
The letters seem to undermine one of the major arguments the senator has used throughout his political career to rebut criticism of his ownership in HCA: that the stock was held in blind trusts beyond his control and that he had little idea of the extent of those holdings.

I'm off to the doctor's to see if I can head off this walking pneumonia I seem to be falling into. More later this afternoon.