Thank You, New Hamsher!
The latest in wild Plame speculation.
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NYT editor Bill Keller fires defensively at all targets (bloggers, Fox, Yahoo!, the WSJ) and finally offers some numbers on TimesSelect that, on second glance, turn out to maybe be not-so-impressive:
Keller hailed early returns on TimesSelect, which grants online access to the paper's columnists only to Times subscribers and those who pay $49.95 a year, saying a "couple hundred thousand people" have signed on for the service. However, a Times spokeswoman later clarified this figure, explaining that it includes current Times subscribers, who get TimesSelect for free, saying that the paper was not disclosing how many people were paying for TimesSelect. [Emphasis added]
Plame Update--Thank you, new Hamsher: The most intriguing theory I've heard to explain the latest developments in the Plame story--i.e. Judith Miller's producing** notes of an early conversation with "Scooter" Libby, Karl Rove's fourth grand jury appearance--has been developed by Jane Hamsher of firedoglake and emptywheel of The Next Hurrah. It is, however, difficult to extract this theory from their paragraphs of knowingly informal, bloggish copy. Fortunately, Mark Kleiman condenses and summarizes the Hamsher/Hurrah "Mousetrap" Scenario--which features special prosecutor Fitzgerald letting Miller open herself up to a perjury threat. ... Greg Mitchell, who may read a few blogs himself, outlines similar possibilities in Editor & Publisher. ...
P.S.: I'm not familiar enough with the details to responsibly offer a comment. So here's a comment: A key question raised by the "Mousetrap" speculation is whether N.Y. Times reporter Judith Miller accurately testified about a June, 2003 meeting with Libby that predated the July op-ed by former ambassador Joseph Wilson that was previously thought to have kicked off the whole Bushie attempt to discredit Wilson by--possibly illegally--revealing the CIA role of his wife, Valerie Plame. In this context, Miller's production of the new notes might not be as ominous as it seems. She might want to show the prosecutor the notes in order to prove that she and Libby discussed Wilson but not Wilson's wife. In other words, the notes might exculpate Libby from a charge of maliciously leaking the Wilson-wife-CIA connection. They might also, in some possible, equally speculative scenarios, exculpate Miller from a charge that she hasn't been fully forthcoming with the prosecutor (e.g., if he had asked her only about conversations related to Mrs. Wilson (Plame), rather than Mr. Wilson, and she can prove that this was not a conversation about the former.) ... TalkLeft is also skeptical. ...
**--I'd previously referred to Miller's "discovery" of the notes, following the NYT which called them "newly discovered" on Oct. 8. But as TalkLeft points out, it's not clear that the notes have been "discovered" in any relevant sense. They just might not have been included in Fitzgerald's original subpoena to Miller. ... It's easy to mock Miller for "newly discovered" evidence, but kausfiles is determined to be fair, even if Miller's enemies at the New York Times are not! .... 9:03 P.M. link
Headline Still Available: "Miers Remorse." Use it or lose it. ... 10/9 update: Sold! To the Wall Street Journal and John Fund. ... P.S.: Alert reader B.S. reports that "Sunshine Jim," a commenter on the Majority Report Radio Web site, used the phrase back on 10/4, though not in a headline. [He was still first, right?--ed He beat me. I don't know if anyone else beat him.] ... 2:33 P.M.
