1. Fitz is not operating under the Special Prosecutor law, never was. Ashcroft had to recuse himself. The law provides for Special Counsel powers in that circumstance. The law for it already exists, and was used by Fitz's boss. (It's quite separate from the Spec Pros law which was rescinded.)*
2. Libby's lawyers are grasping at straws. But then, so is Bush on many fronts--making up the law as he goes along--and has now packed the Supreme Court with his toadies. So who knows what will fly with THEM?
3. AP is just as bad as all the other war profiteering corporate news monopolies. They shill for Bushites and war-mongers. This is not so much a legal case as a 'talking point' for the lapdog news media, for when Rove and Hadley get indicted (soon), and possibly Cheney. (Fitz is the tortoise in the "Tortoise and the Hare" fable--slow, steady, dogged, relentless, incorruptible, brilliant prosecutor.) When the new indictments come down, they will all start babbling about the 'doubts' cast on Fitz's 'authority.' It might also be a prelim newsbite--dropping newsturds into the newsstream--for some planned attempted "Saturday Night Massacre" via the Supreme Court, maybe? Possible. But I suspect it's the former--'spin' for the pending new indictments.
There is another DU thread about this at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2201359H2O Man didn't join that thread, and I'd have to do a lot of work to assemble his various posts for you on this and other Fitz/Traitorgate topics. The Libby legal argument is not new--it's about a month old. There has already been a lot of discussion about it. That AP would feature it now is the most interesting part of this newsbit.
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*A note on Gonzales (current AG): While Gonzales hasn't recused himself (no immediate reason to), he (before he was AG) was the White House operative who alerted the White House gang that Fitz was going to subpoena their emails, etc., and gave them 12-18 hours to purge docs. Fitz has mentioned this doc purge is several filings. So, if it is somehow engineered to have Gonzales be Fitz's boss on this case, I believe Fitz will go public and blow the whistle on this junta, big time. Gonzales may well be a prosecution TARGET. And if they try to put Congress in charge of Fitz, all hell is going to break loose as well. It will rip Congress and the Republican Party to shreds.
A related note: You likely noticed the recent resignation of WH chief of staff Andrew Card, who was very likely in the middle of the conspiracy to out CIA agent Plame and her entire counter-proliferation network. Card may be singing to Fitz, or is also in Fitz's sights (in addition to Rove, Hadley and Cheney). American political life is about to get ve-e-ery interesting. Who knows what will happen, with this criminal gang in charge--but Fitz has a lot of cards in his hand (..ahem).