Yes, the SOTU is tonight, but there’s a lot more going on in the country. Specifically, there’s that Scooter Libby business. And just to coincide with today’s event, there’s a bombshell defense coming out that may drag both Rove and Cheney deeper into the situation than we had thought before.

Rove was one of two sources for Novak’s story. The other was then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Nobody, including Rove and Armitage, has been charged with the leak. Libby is accused of lying to investigators and obstructing the probe into the leak.

Cheney’s notes from that meeting underscore Libby’s concern, Wells said.

“Not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder,” the note said, according to Wells.

Interesting. Now, I’m not going to claim I understand this situation very well, but from the looks of things we’re going to see the whole scandal blow open a lot wider than it was previously.

Pop on over to DailyKos to get a much better analysis than I can give.