Running Amok

Judith Miller "misled" The New York Times.
So says Bill Keller, Times' executive editor, in a wish-list e-mail of what he shoulda, coulda done differently while all those "alarm bells" were going off.

He's long distance running amok from Judy Miller.

His defense -- we did the right thing, but Judy "misled" [insert lied] to us.

"If we had lanced the WMD boil earlier, we might have damped any suspicion that THIS time, the paper was putting the defense of a reporter above the duty to its readers."

Big "if". I doubt that boil lancing (yuk) would have damped suspicions because "putting the defense of a reporter above the duty to its readers" is exactly what the Times did.

But, hey, don't blame Bill: Judy..."misled Phil Taubman about the extent of her involvement."

"But if I had known the details of Judy's entanglement with Libby...". Wink, wink -- we all know what "entanglement" is supposed to mean.

Now is revealed more about the sudden mysterious appearance of Judy's notes and notebook of a June
23 meeting with Libby. In another section of the notebook, she wrote the name "Valerie Flame" (can anybody keep a straight face?) and can't recall who told her the name.

"The New York Times' Judith Miller belatedly gave prosecutors her notes of a key meeting in the CIA leak probe only after being shown White House records of it"

So, they got the goods on her -- she had to cough up the notebook and testify about this meeting, too.

Judy's lawyer, Bob Bennett, says it is "absolutely false" to suggest she withheld information about a June 2003 meeting with Libby.

Not volunteering info sounds like withholding info. But remember Judy cut a deal to narrow the scope of her testimony.

Miller says Keller's e-mail is "seriously inaccurate".

"As for Keller's remark about "my `entanglement' with Mr. Libby, I had no personal, social, or other relationship with him except as a source," Miller wrote."

Now there is a boil that needs to be lanced.

While the Times is divorcing Miller, they should lance all their boils that plague the newspaper
with all the pus that's fit to print.

--LynZee