reality-based educator

Oh, Judy:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After being locked up for nearly three months in jail, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released on Thursday after agreeing to testify before a grand jury investigating who in the Bush administration leaked a covert CIA operative's name.

Miller said in a statement issued by the newspaper that she was freed after her source "voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations." The Times identified her source as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby.

Miller agreed to appear on Friday before the grand jury, which has been investigating who in the administration leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Miller met with Libby on July 8, 2003, the newspaper said, and talked with him by telephone later that week.

She was released from the Alexandria Detention Center just outside Washington after she and her lawyers met at the jail with Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the case, to discuss her testimony to the grand jury.

Legal sources said Miller's testimony appeared to clear the way for Fitzgerald to wrap up his case, which could shake up an administration already reeling from criticism over its response to Hurricane Katrina and Wednesday's indictment of House Republican leader Tom DeLay.

The leak investigation has ensnarled President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove as well as Libby.

Miller, who was sent to jail on July 6 though she never wrote an article about the Plame matter, said her attorneys had reached agreement with Fitzgerald "regarding the nature and scope of my testimony, which satisfies my obligation as a reporter to keep faith with my sources."

A spokesman for Fitzgerald declined to comment.

Boy, not a good week for the GOP.

First the SEC investigation of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's alleged insider trading goes from informal to formal. Then House Majority Leader Tom Delay gets indicted on conspiracy to launder money charges and is forced to step down. The three guys who murdered Gus Boulis, the former owner of Sun Cruz Casinos before GOP superlobbyist Jack Abramoff bought it, were arrested this week and they may be connected to Abramoff through his business partner, Adam Kidan. A judge also ordered the Bush administration to release the rest of the Abu Ghraib photos within 20 days. And now Judy has agreed to testify before the CIA leak grand jury, meaning Fitzgerald will be issuing his indictments in less than four weeks.

Gee, I wonder how the wankers at the Note will spin this in the morning.

Oh, wait...I know. They'll say, "Sure the entire GOP leadership is going to the pokey and Bush's agenda is deader than Tom Delay's career as Majority Leader, but Democrats still don't have an agenda so nah, nah!!!"

And while the Noters may be right when they say Dems don't really stand for anything, they're forgetting just what it is the Republicans stand for in people's minds these days:

Corruption.