Despite denials from the Department of Justice, ABC News is standing by its story that House Speaker Dennis Hastert is “in the mix” of the FBI investigation into congressional corruption. ABC quotes anonymous “law enforcement sources,” including a “senior official” who told ABC, “You guys wrote the story very carefully, but they are not reading it very carefully.”

Who is ABC’s source? This person is in law enforcement, but apparently not at the DoJ proper (in which case he would probably be referred to as a “Justice Department official”).

After the jump, some ruminations from us.

Here are some interesting observations: (1) John Miller, the FBI’s assistant director of public affairs, is a former correspondent and anchor for ABC News; (2) Miller has not given any on-the-record comments about Hastert and the FBI investigation; and (3) the FBI can’t be pleased by how Hastert has joined with the Democrats in criticism of its investigation.

We’re not sayin’, we’re just sayin’…

(Okay, guess this wasn’t much of a guessing game…)

Corruption Investigation: Hastert “In the Mix” [ABC News]
John Miller - Assistant Director of Public Affairs [FBI]

The Daily Briefing is on vacation. (And if you need to ask why, consider that the WP has a front page story this morning announcing that "Democrats Split Over Position on Iraq War." They bury the whole "ice cream is yummy" investigation on page three.)

• "Left Behind" sequel to open in churches, where, presumably, people don't realize that stars Lou Gossett Jr. and Kirk Cameron have been preserved in amber since 1987. . . Don Cheadle visits locale of his movie, "Hotel Rwanda." [WP]
• The other John Roberts is back off the market. . . . What does McCain get out of being Hillary's frienemy?. . . . London-bombgin-riffic "V for Vendetta" moved to March 2006. [Page Six, Page Six, Page Six]
• One-time news anchor John Miller to become FBI flack. [Cindy Adams]