Scooter and Judy Sittin' in a Tree: the Rove Gate Plame Game Continues

The emotional life of Robert Novak is one thing, but what about the secret relationship between Scooter Libby and Judith Miller? Why is it secret? Well, because Miller apparently has gone to jail to avoid talking about it.

As we all know, Scooter Libby is Dick Cheney's chief of staff who has refused to talk with reporters, but who has been a very popular witness before the special prosecutor's grand jury in the Plame-leak case. Judith Miller is the not-so-popular (with other journalists) NYT reporter who is now in jail for refusing to reveal her sources to the special prosecutor after she obtained classified information from senior White House officials.

According to Murray Waas at the American Prospect, Libby and Miller met on July 8, 2003. This was six days before Robert Novak published the infamous column that revealed Valerie Plame's work with the CIA. It could be that Libby is among the sources who Miller is protecting. Waas writes:

The meeting between Libby and Miller also occurred during a week of intense activity by Libby and White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove aimed at discrediting Plame's husband, Wilson, who on July 6, 2003, had gone public in a New York Times opinion piece with allegations that the Bush administration was misrepresenting intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq.

Miller was jailed in July -- two years to the day after Wilson's Times op-ed appeared -- for civil contempt of court after she refused to answer questions posed to her by Fitzgerald's grand jury regarding her contacts discussing Plame with Libby and other Bush administration officials. Ironically, even though she never wrote a story about Plame, she has so far been the only person jailed in the case.

The new disclosure that Miller and Libby met on July 8, 2003, raises questions regarding claims by President Bush that he and everyone in his administration have done everything possible to assist Fitzgerald's grand-jury probe. Sources close to the investigation, and private attorneys representing clients embroiled in the federal probe, said that Libby's failure to produce a personal waiver may have played a significant role in Miller's decision not to testify about her conversations with Libby, including the one on July 8, 2003.

The article questions why Bush does not suggest to Libby that he waive his right to confidentiality, as Rove had -- which is why Matt Cooper, of Time, was able to reveal Rove as his source (and thus not go to jail, when Miller did). If Libby was exposed as Miller's source, she may have a chance to be released from jail.

Arianna Huffington and others continue to ask why Miller is so bent on protecting sources that, in effect, put a CIA operative's life in danger. The pattern that is emerging is a well-orchestrated strategy by the White House between July 6, 2003 and July 14, 2003 to discredit Joseph Wilson by revealing that his wife had something to do with his mission to Niger. Miller is one reporter who continues to protect the sources that were part of that strategy. Miller, who has been accused of aiding White House efforts to justify going to war with Iraq based on flimsy evidence of weapons of mass destruction, is now in jail and unable to talk to the press about what she knows.

Sound confusing? It is, a little. One simplified version is that because Miller refuses to reveal her sources, and thus to talk about what those sources said to her, she cannot contradict information that others have given to the special prosecutor. Therefore, the special prosecutor is leaving the case open until he can find out more about what the White House senior officials actually said -- and actually knew. Remember, it is currently Rove's claim that he found out about Plame's identity from journalists. If Miller found out about Plame's identity from Libby (at the very same time that Rove claims to have learned it from reporters), that may discredit Rove.

Pressue from the blogosphere to get Libby to waive his confidentiality -- and thus leave Miller with no reason to protect him -- may help the special prosecutor to bring the case to the next step.

It would be a very interesting month -- it is August after all -- if the special prosecutor were able to charge someone from the White House while Bush was still in Crawford, Texas, taking his month off.

In a time of war, it just doesn't seem right to have the commander-in-hief clearing brush and riding bikes at his vacation house.

If dying soldiers in a mixed-up war aren't enough to get his attention, maybe a couple of indictments of his close and personal friends will be.

UPDATE: Perhaps Libby did give Miller permission to identify him as a source. Others who have talked to Libby -- including Tim Russert -- have identified him as a source.