Matt Cooper is very close to serious trouble. He is not in legal trouble – yet. But his next decision will determine what kind of life he has after this ridiculous Plame/Wilson debacle.

Matt Cooper is at best a serial exaggerator, and at worst a liar. If one reads the emails he sent to his management regarding his conversations with Rove, it is clear Cooper misrepresented every aspect of that encounter in his subsequent article. It is clear he contacted Rove on the matter of welfare reform and only late in the discussion did he, Matt Cooper, bring up WMDs in Africa. Karl Rove attempted to warn Mr. Cooper not to go out half cocked on Wilson’s word – something we all know now is worthless.

What Rove knew, but only hinted to Cooper, was Tenent was hours away from releasing a statement poking holes all through Wilson lies. And they were lies. Wilson lied by implying VP Cheney directed him on the Niger mission. Wilson lied by telling people his wife had nothing to do with his trip to Niger. Wilson lied when he said there was no indication of Saddam attempting to aquire nuclear material – one big, dangerous lie.

So what does Cooper do? He follows the lead of Wilson and writes a bogus article that implies Rove was contacting journalists on the Niger story. That Rove was trying to impugn Wilson by outting Plame. That this was a concerted WH effort.

Fast forward two years and we find a wheeping Matt Cooper on courthouse steps telling a heroic tale of how he was going to go to jail, how he had said good-bye to his son – sniff, sniff – and how he was startled by a late breaking call from his source who had changed his position on confidentiality.

Bald faced lies. We know from a Bryon York interview with Rove’s Lawyer that Cooper is just acting. And acting badly. It was Cooper’s lawyer who contacted Rove’s lawyer, begging to ensure Cooper was covered under the release of confidentiality Rove signed 18 months ago! That’s right folks. For 18 months Cooper was play acting the hero by pretending he was covering his source. But it was a lie. And at the last minute he buckled and went begging to Rove’s lawyer for special assurances that he could testify and avoid jail. When he found out he was in the clear, he just had one more big lie, er.. acting job to perform on the courthouse states. That of the heroic journalist pulled back from the brink of jail.

What a pathetic person this guy is. Why? Money of course.

Today Cooper testified under oath to the grand jury about his conversations. And his comments afterwards were an admission he was wait ingfor his big payoff, er.. spread in Time Magazine!

Cooper told reporters he would give them details of his grand jury testimony — in a future article for Time magazine.

“I’m not going to scoop myself today,” Cooper, a White House correspondent for the news weekly, said outside the U.S. District Court Wednesday afternoon.

I am going to follow Rove’s example and give Matt some advice before he tries one more round of lying, or acting, or however he wants to rationalize this. Just keep Joe Wilson in mind and remember what happened to his career as a serial liar. Right now your only hope , Matt, is you have may not totally destroyed your journalistic reputation beyond repair. Your lies and tales have been boorish and oafish. But the public will not tolerate another round of BS from you. So when you come out with this block buster spread make sure it is accurate as can be. No exaggerating!!

Why? Well, you are too old to find a new career outside journalism for one. But you also have now testified under oath. Wilson also learned this lesson the hard way. When your public statements do not jive with your statements under oath you will be dragged back into court to resolve the differences.

Open Court. Perjury Court.

Head this warning. Besides, you are a pathetically bad actor and need to keep your day job.