Who says "Huckleberry" Libby's boss can't take a punch? (Meanwhile, Mark "The Vanishing Man" Foley sure knows how to take a powder)

Some people think it's a good sign for Irving L. "Huckleberry" Libby that he and his old boss the Veep won't be testifying at our Irving's soon-to-be-concluded trial. It means, suggest those people, that they don't think the prosecution has laid a glove on him.

The opposite school of thinking would be that the testimony to date has revealed so much about the way the vice president does his job that the last thing he or his loyal Huckleberry dare do is subject themselves to cross-examination by "Prosecutor Pat" Fitzgerald.

Those cynics will no doubt regret their unkind thoughts when they hear this news from Al Kamen's Washington Post "In the Loop" column today:

Cheney Taking Questions

Reporters covering the Libby trial doubtless were crushed by news yesterday that neither he nor his former boss, Vice President Cheney, would be taking the stand. But that doesn't mean Cheney is trying to avoid a sharp grilling.

In fact, Cheney is this very morning appearing for what is likely to be a tough session at a National Association of Manufacturers "Q&A, issue breakfast," our invite says, with about "300 manufacturers from around the nation."

Wanna bet there won't be any questions about Valerie Plame?

ELSEWHERE 'IN THE LOOP':
"Foley Makes Himself Scarce"

Our Al also reports today:

Let's have a hearty, albeit temporary, Loop Welcome Back for former congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who is in town this week apparently to move out of his home on the famed GOP enclave on D Street SE on Capitol Hill.

Foley was at his old house yesterday, a Loop Fan reports, overseeing the movers clearing it out. He was spotted about 6:30 a.m., fussing with a garbage bag in the front yard and ducking back into the house when he saw a neighbor walking her dog.