Aspens Are Beautiful This Time of Year

I know. I may be late to the game. But the more I think about Libby's "Aspen letter" to Judy Miller:

Your reporting, and you, are missed. Like many Americans, I admire your principled stand.

But, like many of your friends and readers, I would welcome you back among the rest of us, doing what you do best – reporting.

You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover – Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work – and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers.

and Miller's response via her article about meeting Libby after attending the Aspen conference, the more strange it seems. Here's Judy's key graf:

Mr. Fitzgerald also focused on the letter's closing lines. "Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning," Mr. Libby wrote. "They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them."

How did I interpret that? Mr. Fitzgerald asked.

In answer, I told the grand jury about my last encounter with Mr. Libby. It came in August 2003, shortly after I attended a conference on national security issues held in Aspen, Colo. After the conference, I traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyo. At a rodeo one afternoon, a man in jeans, a cowboy hat and sunglasses approached me. He asked me how the Aspen conference had gone. I had no idea who he was.

"Judy," he said. "It's Scooter Libby."

Again, I reiterate. This last paragraph was the end of Judy's story in the Times. Nothing else. Zip.

Ok, I'm putting my tinfoil hat on. It's got to be code. A warning from Libby? And Judy's response? Fuck you? Throw Cheney being in Jackson Hole at the same time and my head is spinning.