As Hurricane Wilma battles southern Florida and the Keys, MSNBC will bring you continuing coverage of the storm. Connected will not be seen today. Instead, Alison Stewart and Randy Meier will anchor an hour of storm reports. Correspondents from all the affected areas--Naples, the Keys, Miami--will be joining us to bring you the latest.
Meanwhile, let me take a chance to get on the record with some thoughts on the two other stories we are watching closely this week.
The Harriet Miers nomination is DOA, I'm sure of this now. The bloggers could have told you this weeks ago, but now it seems to be permeating the air in the halls of Congress and on the big talk shows.
This weekend Sen. Chuck Schumer said she doesn't have the votes she needs to get confirmed. He wasn't speaking just for Senate Democrats. Apparently of the 18 GOP members on the Judiciary Committee, only two have solidly said they'd vote her up. This combined with an article in The Washington Times saying the White House is working up a contingency plan spell a withdrawal--maybe this week.
Which would be an ideal distraction, actually, from the other big story--the CIA leak investigation. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has until Friday with this grand jury, and D.C. insiders are expecting an announcement from him by tomorrow or Wednesday.
Of course, the buzz over the weekend was about The New York Time's editor Bill Keller's mea culpa, calling into question not just Judy Miller's reporting but the integrity of the paper's coverage of those early days of the Iraq war.
There will be much to discuss this week. See you tomorrow.
Tune in, and keep the emails coming. Maciulis@msnbc.com