White House releases "significant letter" regarding the Gonzo matter
Short version: This is going nowhere until Gonzo's letter is released

Live blogging:
Per CNN, the letter is from the Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell.

Sounds like he's parsing to the Nth degree. So much so that nobody understands it, apparently. Surprise!

Per Suzanne Malveaux: A number of the activities were authorized. Gonzo was being very specific. One aspect and nothing more was publicly acknowledged by Bush. So what other program are they talking about? It's Top Secret. Everything is secret except the warrantless wiretap program (read: violation of the Constitution). Huh???

Here's what they're doing: Trying to confuse everybody. Hey, I'm confused. Wolf is confused. Arlen's confused. Even Randi Rhodes is confused. Except about one thing: The night of the visit to Ashcroft in intensive care. A man on morphine was being coerced into signing off on an illegal program. That's pretty clear.

Specter is on now saying Gonzo "didn't tell us the whole story" and was contradicted. Did Gonzo level with the committee re: disagreement with the administration at that meeting about the terrorist surveillance program? It all depends on the interpretation of the letter by McConnell, says Specter.

So does this clarify that Gonzo did or didn't lie? Specter won't say until he gets Gonzo's letter as well. He won't comment. He keeps saying that the Gonzo letter will interpret this letter. So he won't say if he lied or didn't lie, and is RELYING ON GONZO's letter now.

If Gonzo has no plausible explanation, then what? Specter wouldn't say.

Specter thinks Gonzo should leave and disagrees with Cheney about that.

Can we please interview someone else? Specter doesn't want this matter to go to court for 2 years so he wants to cave to Bush's demands on interviewing, not under oath.

This is the Big News of the hour. Did I say "news"? This was the Big Nothing.