It’s hard to know where to begin when discussing Judith Miller’s role in the Wilson/Plame/CIA leak case. Ms. Miller sees herself as a latter day Joan of Arc. In fact she appears to have been so intoxicated by her proximity to power that she was willing to lie.

Here is a telling snippet: In her breakfast meeting with Scooter Libby in DC, Miller has testified that Libby asked her to not identify him as a “senior administration official.” Rather he wanted to be cited as a “former hill staffer.” This would obfuscate the source of the leak (in Libby’s mind anyway). What’s most egregious is that Miller immediately agreed to this lie.

So, Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, has now, in an internal memorandum meant for public dissemination, apologised to the staff of the Times for his own missteps in dealing with Ms. Miller (and Miller has answered back). It begs the question: Did Keller just want to believe a Pulitzer Prize wining reporter or was he afraid to reign her in because of her ties to the administration? The truth is somewhere in there and we’ll probably never know. We must ask of everyone concerned from the White House to the press the old Howard Baker question: what did they know and when did they know it?

What the public do know is that journalistic integrity was thrown aside like yesterday’s news. It was at the bottom of the cage and Judy Miller was posing as the bird who wouldn’t sing after having sung many front page arias written by the White House.

It’s a funny thing about lies, they have a way of coming back and sticking to the liar. Lies are tar babies.

Right about now, Ms. Miller is having to douse those flames in her knickers.