Judith Miller is all about Judith Miller

Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who went spent 12 weeks in a federal prison because she refused to testify to a grand jury prosecuting the leak of the name of a covert CIA agent, has been released. She agreed to a deal late last week where she would testify to the grand jury about her source now that she had received a waiver of confidentiality from her source.

It turns out her source was, in fact, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney. He is the source I fingered in a post here July 19. Apparently, Libby had agreed to a waiver for Miller a year ago, but she wanted a specific and personal phone call. Apparently that happened recently, and Miller agreed to testify to the grand jury what she knows.

That, or Miller just got tired of being in the pokey.

I have a mountain of respect for someone who sticks to her principles as Miller had done. She defended her First Amendment rights to free press and free speech, stiff-arming the special prosecutor and holding sacred a bond of her word for confidentiality. But I wonder, with 12 weeks of her sentence served, and the grand jury term set to expire in just a few more weeks, why Miller suddenly changed her tune.

Howard Kurtz, a media critic for The Washington Post and the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources," said this morning on his Sunday CNN show that he expected to get up this morning and read a 5,000-word story from Miller in today's Sunday Times, a story that would explain everything Miller knew about the CIA agent's name leak.

Alas, none was there.

Increasingly, I believe Judith Miller is more interested in being a martyr, a person who seeks to be close to power. She does not operate ina traditional position of power -- such as being an elected official -- so she uses her position at The Times to manipulate people in power, essentially being more powerful than they are. Meanwhile, everyone knows her name, and she'll get a heck of a book deal when all the dust settles. Her flag-waving and First Amendment stunts are wearing thin. Sadly, she duped her editors and Floyd Abrahams, her distinguished attorney, one of the foremost First Amendment legal minds of our generation.

So I will ignore Judith Miller, and I will resist any desire to acknowledge her sacrifice. She's become just as much of a sellout as the broadcast anchors. Perhaps The Times, which recently announced a substantial reduction in newsroom staff, might show her the door, too. It would be better off.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.