Countdown to 'Countdown'

Cold feet consequences — No one here would ever look at you and say "we told you so."  We just thought it would be instructive tonight — as we await the decision of Gwinnett County Georgia whether or not to prosecutive Jennifer Wilbanks — to cite what was said on three of last Friday's 8 p.m. cable news hours as the quote "dramatic" story un-folded.  On CNN Headline News, Nancy "None of You Are Innocent" Grace announced: "I just don't believe it's a case of cold feet."  On Fox News Channel, the Big Giant Head, Bill O'Reilly, was even more certain: "The epidemic of crimes against women and children in America continues with the disappearance of 32-year-old Jennifer Wilbanks from an Atlanta suburb."  Moments later, still omniscient, he added, “It's got to be a crime. A woman like that with a long history of responsibility. She had a steady job...She just wouldn't bolt and not tell anybody."  Here at MSNBC, a lone dissenting voice in the wilderness saw a clue others had missed and took the unusual step of verbalizing a hunch.  Well, whaddya know...It wasn't a cold case, but a case of cold feet .  It wasn't part of any epidemic.  Jennifer Wilbanks just needed some time to herself.  Whether or not she might get some of that time, by herself, in a jail, is yet to be determined for faking her disappearance.

Iraq — The numbers cascade down on you like dust from the top shelf of the library.  As inter-party conflicts get added to the awful recipe.  The death toll from insurgent violence in Iraq — just since last Thursday — crossed 140 dead , 23 more, at least, today.  Including eight soldiers at a checkpoint south of Baghdad.  One of the car bombs — at an upscale shopping area — also set a nearby apartment building on fire in which six civilians died there.  The insurgency behind them is believed to be made up of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, who were for the most part shut out of the partial cabinet announced on Thursday.  That new cabinet is set to be sworn in tomorrow, with six of the seven previously open seats filled.  The one post that remains, defense minister, is meant for a Sunni, but the incoming prime minister's initial choice for that seat was rejected — suspected of having ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath party.

Late night with Laura — More over Jay Leno. Hello Laura Bush. A new comedic talent burst across the sky like the debut of Mary Tyler Moore on The Dick Van Dyke Show over the weekend.  Well, something like that. She was going out there a First Lady, but she came back... a star.   First Lady Laura Bush stole the show at the White House Correspondents dinner.

Baseball's tough stance — It isn't exactly Roger Clemens.  But baseball today suspended its first "sorta" name player for using steroids.  He's Juan Rincon — a proficient, if not especially well-known relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins.  He's the fifth player suspended under the new steroid and steroid precursor penalties — and he'll sit out ten days, without pay.  If the Commissioner of baseball had his way, however, he'd be suspended for fifty games.  Responding to the howls of laughter after the appearance of executives and players before congress on March 17th, Commissioner Bud Selig has written to the head of the players' union, asking that the penalties for being "juiced" be drastically stiffened.  The first positive test, now results in a ten-day suspension.  Selig wants it to be 50 games.

Lost (and found) at sea — It was not just that, after a week, the Coast Guard had given up hope.  Nor that the runs of the search-and-rescue teams had been discontinued.  Nor even that the families had begun to steel themselves for the inevitability that the bodies would be washing ashore by next Tuesday or Wednesday.  It was that Troy Driscoll and Josh Long themselves knew there was no way back.  Long, 18,  says at one point, miles off the South Carolina coast , clinging to a capsized boat, he prayed to God. "If it's your will that we not live, take us home. If not, send us a boat."  Of course, all of what Driscoll and Long did, or thought, or prayed, would have to be speculation right now.  Unless something, or someone, sent them that boat.