During his, "Notes? I don't need no stinkin' notes!" hour plus performance last Friday, Patrick Fitzgerald had much to say. He patiently explained the role of the Grand Jury, outlined the case his team was investigating, emphasized the seriousness of the charges against Scooter Libby contained in his indictment, talked about what he couldn't talk about and answered questions and answered questions and answered questions. Everyone was impressed to the nines.

After a weekend of sleep and recovery from countless hours of reading Reddhead and Jane at Firedoglake, a tidbit of simplicity has finally bubbled to the surface.  

All the words Our Man Fitz rattled off last Friday added up to one cool unspoken message.  

"Your move, Scooter."

I want to return to wg's comments from KO's blog, which NYBri quoted the other day.

He'll follow the evidence where it leads and no further, but he's not afraid of anybody, especially these smug thugs. He seemed like a walking, human rebuke to the insane political atmosphere of the last decade.

And also DarkSyde's excellent diary this morning over at Kos:

When you or I, or a politician, or anyone else is under oath, they damn well better either tell the truth, or not answer the f**king question. And if they lie and they get caught, I want them subject to the same consequences everyone else is subject to. Doesn't it matter if they're democrats or republicans or communists or theocrats or lunatics, because this is a matter of law and law cannot play party favorites.

(George Inness expresses similar sentiments here).

And finally, from Fitzgerald's news conference:

When I was in New York working as a prosecutor, we brought those cases because we realized that the truth is the engine of our judicial system. And if you compromise the truth, the whole process is lost.

In other words, respect for law is the necessary precondition for American Democracy.  It is part of the social contract into which we all have entered, and it is so ingrained in our shared consciousness that we rarely question how fragile it is.  But the law is like paper currency: it only has value for as long as their is a collective agreement that it does.

This from a comment by wg on  Kid Oakland's politics + culture blog.

...BUT, I think I may be experiencing, Linus-like, the deeper meaning of Fitzmas. Watching and listening to Fitz, I rediscovered something I haven't felt in a long, long time: a kind of simple, optimistic pride in the potential and promise of America. I know that sounds fatuous, but it felt like, after crawling through the desert, I was finally rewarded with a tall, clear glass of ice-cold life-sustaining water. I took such profound and unexpected pleasure in the trust I felt in this guy. And I even found a perverse satisfaction in the way he frustrated my shallow partisan craving for a brutal rhetorical smackdown. When was the last time you had the experience of seeing somebody on tv, in a political context, that you didn't feel compelled to view through an angry ideological prism? It was such a relief to not be an analyzing and enraged critic, or even a chortling schadenfreudian. I just had a very simple, almost childlike, faith in this guy. He'll follow the evidence where it leads and no further, but he's not afraid of anybody, especially these smug thugs. He seemed like a walking, human rebuke to the insane political atmosphere of the last decade. I know this all sounds ridiculous and naive, but perhaps that only suggests how deeply I was craving, without even really being aware of it, somebody to believe in again. I believe in fairness, and justice, and equality, and civility. And I saw that today in Patrick Fitzgerald. And maybe that, Charlie Brown, is the true meaning of Fitzmas.

Humbled, I say Merry Fitzmas, in the true sense.

From the Special Counsel's website:

**MEDIA ADVISORY**
SPECIAL COUNSEL PATRICK J. FITZGERALD TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald will hold a press conference at 2:00 P.M. EDT today, Friday October 28, 2005, regarding the status of the Special Counsel's criminal investigations.

WHO: Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald
FBI Special Agent-in-Charge John C. Eckenrode

WHAT: Release of public information and press conference

WHERE: Department of Justice
7th Floor Conference Center
950 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530

NOTE: 7th floor access to reporters at 11 A.M. EDT Cameras allowed access at noon EDT Cameras must pre-set by 1:00 P.M. EDT

Fitzmas starts today ...