The Lady V., and the Bald Man of WHIG

I made a few notes off Judith Miller's report today of her time in jail and her time before the grand jury, as well as the article about her by some Times staffers, and an editorial by Frank Rich on the subject. I will try to organize these thoughts on the fly, and if necessary come back and re-focus.

To me, there are some key names, and these provide associations in my mind to some major unanswered questions:

Valerie Flame--This "name" was found in Judith Miller's notebook. Importantly for her testimony, not in the section of the notebook where her notes from meetings with Scooter Libby were located.

I give her credit for taking some precautions. She claims to have no recollection of who might have mentioned this proper noun to her and in what context. This seems to me a clear case of selective memory: Miller makes clear in her memoir that she agreed to testify only when Fitzgerald acceded to her request that the grand jury testimony be limited to questions about her meetings with Scooter. In spite of which she somehow did get asked, and denied, meeting with VP Cheney on the subject. (A meeting with Cheney, of course, being impossible as he was in his undisclosed location at all times).

The error in the first letter of the last name (as one would presume it is in fact an erroneous--or encoded--rendering of the name of formerly clandestine CIA agent Valerie PLAME) is interesting to me: I've made the same error in print myself, several months ago. Was I channeling her confusion, or she mine?

OK, a more interesting question is, in what context was "Flame" found in the notebook? Hmm?

Victoria Wilson--another name found in Miller's notebook. This time the surname may be correct (or may not be, certainly not politically correct)but the given name is in error. Here, I think even more clearly, there is supernatural, or subliminal, channeling going on: I recognize the dire echoes of "my name is Victoria Winters" (the start of every tiresome episode of "Dark Shadows", the macabre soap opera/thriller of the what? early 70's?)

Victoria Wren--Actually, this name was not found in Miller's notebook, but at this point, it is time to bring in the common thread: the Lady V. herself, the one from whom we have not yet heard. I call upon Thomas Pynchon to be the muse we all need to unravel this mystery, certainly one worthy of Herbert Stencil. The latest straw the media have grasped is a photograph purportedly of Plame, who appears in her latest incarnation as a young, foxy blonde (ah, but the powers of plastic surgeons have come so far since Valletta, haven't they?)

WHIG--the Rich editorial (http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/opinion/16rich.html) says there were eight members of the White House Iraq Group, an ad hoc conspiracy to force the invasion down the (mostly willing) throats of the American people, come what facts there may. Rich's text names only six: Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Mary Matalin, Mary Hughes, Condoleeza Rice, and Stephen Hadley (a national security official). It might be implied that chief of staff Andrew Card, who set up the group, would be a seventh member. Who was the eighth, and why does Rich not dare to name him/her? Could it be that the eighth member maintained plausible deniability, retains immense power, and has a reputation for ferocious infighting?

Then there is the seemingly mysterious, portentous line from Libby's famous letter releasing Miller from any need to further protect him as a unnamed source: "Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning," Mr. Libby wrote. "They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them." Miller followed this with some anecdote about how she had been surprised to meet Libby out West in Aspen.

This screams, "Cover story!" No, not for a newspaper, but for spy business. What else do aspens do besides turn in clusters, and have complex connecting roots? They quake, that's what. Libby is talking about the cover-up, the threat that some of his fellow Bushite cronies would turn themselves in en masse, and reveal the hidden conspiratorial connections--if only they were not mortally afraid? Of whom? Who gave the name to Novak?

I think the message is clear: The Eighth Man. That man of the West. Benny Profane's Ivy League-educated half-brother, Dick.