GETTING CRUCIAL

We weren't the only ones who noticed. We just noticed sooner. So our question is: Is Frank Rich reading us? If so, there's no crime in that. Hi Frank. We like the idea.

Deep in his column today about the grand jury investigation of the Valerie Plame case was this crucial sentence:

Deep in a Wall Street Journal account of Judy Miller's grand jury appearance was this crucial sentence: "Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group."

Deep in our item last Wednesday -- OK, not so deep, only in the second graf -- we referred to this crucial sentence:

Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group.

The crucial sentence first appeared -- in the 11th graf, to be precise -- in a story that ran under the headline "Focus of CIA Leak Probe Appears to Widen." It was published last Wednesday on page 3 of The Journal's main news section and -- credit where due -- was reported by John D. McKinnon, Joe Hagan and Anne Marie Squeo.

It's possible, of course, (even probable) that Rich was not reading us but was merely reading the Journal that day. So give the man a blog. If he had one, chances are he'd have noticed the crucial sentence then and posted it himself.