Plame blame game with Judith Lost Weekend Miller

For a mere limey to unpick the threads of the Plame affair is difficult. I do know Matt Frei the BBC Washington correspondent in an end of the year round up at New Year when asked to forecast events for 2005 said cryptically we would see the biggest Washington scandal ever unfold…. Then they cut to the weather.

Struggling with the “evidence” of jail bird Milller et al in the NYT 5,800 word explanation …..

She had written the name "Valerie Flame" written in her notebook (no she can't recall, "when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled." . Besides a few recipes and a note about the dry cleaning it probably also had notes from an interview with Scooter Libby on …er … 8th July.. er .. 2003. Strangely when the name Plame became international news days later she “simply could not recall” who gave her that name. Shucks.(pic Miller leaves prison on arm of Publisher Sulzberger)

These notes also show long time friend Libby told her a Plame worked for Winpac, (whatever that may be) part of the CIA – that’s the Central Intelligence Agency, any fool knows that. But Hot Dog! she has "no clear memory" of the “context” in which he said this – perhaps he was rolling a joint ? Slipping ketamine in her sherry ?

Miller appeared (presumably sober – do they run breath tests?) before a Grand Jury (which we don’t have in the UK) and she told them she did discuss the Plame affair with other sources, but Dang it! she "could not recall" who.

The bright bit (for Libby maybe) is that Miller doesn't think Libby told her Plame's name because, she says, it appeared in a “different part of the notebook” from her notes from the Libby interview. No she won’t show this disordered mess to her pals at the New York Times who wrote the story about her. I mean. would a girl empty her handbag?

However scatty Ms. Miller hadn't got her knickers in a twist and did tell the NYT reporters she apparently does remember that she "made a strong recommendation to my editor" that she write a story about Joe Wilson and his wife. Which is a pity because no-one else does. Jill Abramson, then Washington bureau chief for the Times, said Miller never made any such recommendation. Miller refused to tell the NYT reporters writing a story about her who "my editor" was …. Possibly because she couldn’t remember who it was..

What does this tell me about the affair? There is a falling out among thieves and nobody wants to take the rap. Rove, Libby,Cheney and a raft of people wanted Joe Wilson canned but they didn’t want their turd blossom fingerprints all over it.

What it also shows, is, if you want to reach the height of the journalistic profession *, have a really fucked up notebook, don’t keep nice neat records and for fuck’s sake, don’t remember anything…. Now where did I put that recipe Carl gave me for marzipan fudge cake?

* Miller was still scheduled to received a First Amendment Award given by the Society of Professonal Journalists at their convention on Tuesday.

See WSJ piece here, unravels a bit more of the crochet work.