This week in the saga

The special counsel tries to jump the line — straight to the highest court on the immunity question, tonight, before the election calendar can save the defendant — and the defendant, who has spent three years being told to hurry up, savors the irony of counselling patience. In New Hampshire the winter language finds its darkest register yet: not vermin now but blood, poison, the nation itself as the body being infected. The chronicle records the words without flinching; it has been resetting this alarm all winter. At midnight comes sweeter news, read by phone-glow — the rival's campaign chief walks, and the falling bird loses its keeper. The week closes where the ledger case always closes: the judge denies the motion to dismiss, and the number New York wants will be named in the new year.