Very quietly, Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who was jailed for 85 days for refusing to reveal her source in the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson, was released from an Alexandria jail late yesterday. Reports are that she had a phone conversation with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Chief of Staff to the Vice President, and that that conversation released her from her agreement of confidentiality. She is, as I type, testifying before Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury investigating the leak of the CIA agent's name.

This has always been a convoluted and curious case for me. It reminds me of everything I've ever read regarding Watergate - there are a smattering of facts over here and then a pile of facts over there and, while all related to the outing of Valerie Plame, one smattering doesn't seem to relate to another pile. It wreaks of cover-up. And a stupid cover-up at that - in much the same way that it was stupid and counter-productive to break into the DNC's offices in the Watergate.

Stay tuned for more on this as it shakes out. Here are a few excellent stories on the Plame affair, as diaried over at Daily Kos.

• Judy Miller the Second Most Important Plame Development Today
• BREAKING: NEO-CON LARRY FRANKLIN WILL PLEAD GUILTY