aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Saturday, October 22, 2005

It’s Miller time

Keller expresses regret. While Judy says “I did not think I was a target” of Scooter’s deliberate campaign to out Plame. Kevin Drum compares those comments to Robert Novak’s self-serving defense from two years ago and concludes:

The story from both of these extremely experienced reporters is that Libby’s disclosure to them was nothing but idle chatter. Nothing planned about it. They want us to believe that the only way White House operatives plant rumors is to pick up the phone, dial it methodically, and then spit out the dirt along with a request to please try to see that this ends up on the front page.

They should stop insulting our intelligence… I have no doubt that these officials did their best to make their disclosures sound casual. Miller and Novak either fell for it, or else were willing accomplices. Neither option speaks well for their ability to do their job.

Jay Rosen has the definitive post; but Maureen Dowd’s column, Woman of Mass Destruction, is more fun. It has even convinced at least one of the blogging luminaries on the left to pay for TimesSelect. The line we’re all quoting:

[B]efore turning Judy’s case into a First Amendment battle, they should have nailed her to a chair and extracted the entire story of her escapade.

Judy told The Times that she plans to write a book and intends to return to the newsroom, hoping to cover “the same thing I’ve always covered - threats to our country.” If that were to happen, the institution most in danger would be the newspaper in your hands.

UPDATE: NYTimes Public Editor says “It seems to me that whatever the limits put on her, the problems facing her inside and outside the newsroom will make it difficult for her to return to the paper as a reporter.”

Kos says Keller is let off way too easy.