While the world waits breathlessly for the Scooter Libby trial coming together this and the following weeks, there will be another more intreguing story coming out as well.

Oh those witness lists, the names and places….

While Libby’s charges of perjury and obstruction are serious, in the end there is no way they stick. But on the other hand, the witnesses that will be called include many of the familiar characters of the Plame Game and I’m not talking about VP Cheney. While for obvious reasons, legal beagles for the Ny Times, Time Magazine, and even NBC news are scurrying to handle new requests over the last few months from the defense for deposition and witness appearances by media subjects again familiar to us all. Whether they will be considered material to the specifics of Libby’s case remain to be seen, it is nonetheless interesting to muse on how long Russert, Mitchell, Cooper can stick to implausible and conveniently connected tales of who told who what.

All throughout last year the Libby team subpoenaed most of the above and more for deposition (you can track them that progression here), with the only apparent reprieve being granted to Judy Miller. Yet there is a difference between pretrial summons and that which can occur during trial as the defense has wide latitude to call witnesses it deems necessary.

Meanwhile Clarice Feldman, an attorney in her own right, is live blogging the jury selection. From a perusal of the notes she posts it seems the subject of Plame’s status keeps popping up, but we need to remember that that issue is completely closed as nothing in the indictment charged either her status or if a crime of revealing occurred.

Oh and by the way, Joe (mint tea) Wilson is on the list as well.

So let the games begin!