By Steve Clemons

This just in from a close friend who worked inside the pinnacle of Republican power in the Senate a few years ago, so while this is rumor — it’s Republican rumor, which makes it interesting: Steve, just heard from trusted friend that McCain was approached about serving as VP if Cheney has “health problems” or…

With revelations now out that Vice President Cheney was Scooter Libby’s source for some of the Valerie Plame information, his week — which was already going to be bad — just got a heck of a lot worse.

I have just been tipped off that the Los Angeles Times plans to run a rip-the-veneer-off the White House cabal op-ed by Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former State Department Chief of Staff, in the morning.

Scooter Libby has been caught in a very serious lie about the source of his knowledge that Valerie Plame Wilson was a CIA agent. He apparently testified before the grand jury that his source had been a journalist. However, the New York Times now reports that his source was his boss, Vice President Cheney.

Bob Herbert, in this morning’s New York Times, lays out some of the key themes raised by Lawrence Wilkerson in his candid and thoughtful talk at the New America Foundation last Wednesday.

Jeffrey Goldberg has written a critique in The New Yorker of the Bush White House that equals Ron Suskind’s devastating critique of Bush before the last election titled “Without a Doubt.

Here is the release today from The New Yorker on the important article by Jeffrey Goldberg on Brent Scowcroft: Brent Scowcroft on the War in Iraq and the Bush Administration In “Breaking Ranks” (p.

The revered-in-tons-of-corners former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft definitively breaks ranks with the Bush administration in an article by nearly the same name, “Breaking Ranks,” appearing in the upcoming Monday issue of The New Yorker. The article will outline what decisions and events have built up to turn Brent Scowcroft against this Bush administration.

Note to TWN Readers: There has been huge coverage of Col. Lawrence Wilkerson’s talk at the New America Foundation — and soon I will create a listing of all of the best items for the sake of future perusal.

Here is the full transcript of Col. Lawrence Wilkerson’s speech yesterday, including Q&A. This has not been edited or fully reviewed yet — but wanted to get up ASAP and may revise if there are mistakes found.