Sometimes I think too much and parse beyond what’s probably necessary but, as far as the Plame Affair goes and because we have so little information and are waiting so patiently for Fitz to announce his results, I think this is an exercise we have to indulge in in order to stay sane.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about Miller’s NYT article about her grand jury testimony – most specifically her last two paragraphs describing how, supposedly, she ran into Scooter Libby in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and how she wrote about it:

In answer, I told the grand jury about my last encounter with Mr. Libby. It came in August 2003, shortly after I attended a conference on national security issues held in Aspen, Colo. After the conference, I traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyo. At a rodeo one afternoon, a man in jeans, a cowboy hat and sunglasses approached me. He asked me how the Aspen conference had gone. I had no idea who he was.

“Judy,” he said. “It’s Scooter Libby.”

That’s odd and here’s why…
If you ran into someone you knew – someone you had spent hours with one month before – and they were to identify themselves to you because you didn’t recognize them at first, wouldn’t they perhaps remove their sunglasses and just say “it’s me”? Why would someone you know give their full name to you in that circumstance? And, does Libby refer to himself as “Scooter”? Many people with nicknames given to them by others use their real names when referring to themselves.

With that one, final line in her long and convoluted article, did Judith Miller in fact tell the world that her source was indeed Scooter Libby?

“It’s Scooter Libby.”