Reply #64: Wash Post's Froomkin on Miller's decision to testify:

[Nothing Without Hope]

Froomkin's piece is not an article, it's a blog associated with the WaPo. After Froomkin's comments are a selection of news reporting and several blogs, including progressive ones. The ones that caught my eye, besides Arianna Huffington, whom I've already cited above:

The Anonymous Liberal writes: "Now that we know (presumably) that Libby did not learn about Plame from Miller, the question remains: how did Libby first learn about Plame?"

Digby writes: "It seems obvious now that Jeralyn was right; Judy's real issue was being asked about her other sources under oath. It looks like they came to some sort of agreement about that."

I'll go check out Digby's full article and report on it below if there is more interesting stuff. And the Anonymous Liberal is quite right to ask the question: how did Libby first learn about Plame?

Here's Froomkin's WaPo-associated blog:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/09/30/BL2005093000669.html

Miller's Big Secret

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, September 30, 2005; 12:03 PM

Can it be? That after all that, New York Times reporter Judith Miller sat in jail for 12 weeks to protect the confidentiality of a very senior White House aide -- even though the aide repeatedly made it clear he didn't want protecting?

(snip)

The man she was protecting, it turns out, was I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff for Vice President Cheney -- sometimes called "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney" on account of his considerable influence in the White House.

Over the course of the investigation, Libby had freed several other reporters from any obligation to keep their conversations with him secret -- and his lawyer had apparently told Miller's lawyer more than a year ago that she was free to talk, as well.

So what was Miller doing in jail? Was it all just a misunderstanding? The most charitable explanation for Miller is that she somehow concluded that Libby wanted her to keep quiet, even while he was publicly -- and privately -- saying otherwise. The least charitable explanation is that going to jail was Miller's way of transforming herself from a journalistic outcast (based on her gullible pre-war reporting) into a much-celebrated hero of press freedom.

(snip)