Arianna Huffington passes along the rumor that Judy Miller is working that book deal, supposedly for $1.2 million. For those of you who were keep track, that’s about $14,117 per day. Do you think Matt Cooper’s reconsidering how much he’d miss his son? MORE »

We’re still reeling from Judy Miller’s Houdini routine, simultaneously the least surprising and most galling prison break since Ford pardoned Nixon. Her source — Scooter Libby — signed a waiver allowing her to testify in Plame investigation a year ago, and the proof that Miller sought that waiver was “real” came with Libby saying, uhm, yes, it’s real.

Ms. Miller told Mr. Libby simply that “I wanted you to tell me personally” that his waiver was voluntary. “Why didn’t somebody call us?” [Libby's lawyer] asked. MORE »

The Daily Briefing is on vacation. MORE »

The idea — as cited by Lloyd Gove in his column today — that TIME’s Matt Cooper is fishing for a job at the NYT because the newsweekly’s hire of Mike Allen has made him feel “a bit crowded” seems off to us. First of all, Allen is not that much taller than Dickerson. Does hog the covers, tho. And then there’s the question of whether Matt’s fishing… or was he pushed? Far from being crowded, we hear he may be lonely: Since his bravura performance of “I Was THISCLOSE to Jail” on the courthouse steps last month, the reception by his colleagues has been stilted and the magazine’s editors aren’t sure what to do with him. (Jim Kelley’s response to inquiries about Cooper’s future in last week’s NYT piece were somewhat less than enthusiastic: “It’s not a matter of appropriateness; it’s a matter of effectiveness.”)

The Times, however, has the perfect role for Cooper: foil. Our sources say that it’s not so much the Times that’s interested in Cooper as it is managing editor Bill Keller. The rank-and-file, on the other hand, wonder why Keller would be interested. We suspect Keller is looking for a soulmate, or at least a cellmate. With almost-a-martyr Cooper on staff, Keller might succeed in muddying the waters over of the paper’s internal investigation of Judith Miller’s role in the leaking of the name of CIA agent Valerie Wilson (Plame, whatever).

Please don your tin-foil hats before we continue after the jump.

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• Under the Dome: Could ‘08 bring a McCain-Kerry ticket?. . . Hatch faces fire for his position on intellectual-property rights. [The Hill]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Is Matt Cooper job hunting at The New York Times?. . . MSNBC President Rick Kaplan “erupted angrily and at length” towards Keith Olbermann after the anchor told viewers of his own cancer scare. [NYDN]
• Liz Smith: Peter Jennings had told Aaron Brown: “Aaron, drop this morning paper idea. You are not funny!” [NYP]
• Names & Faces: Mayor Williams makes risotto and lamb on Channel 16’s “InStyle Washington” cooking program. [WP]

We’d been enjoying all the attention being paid to the earnest and diligent Mike Allen’s move from the WaPo to TIME — it’s thrilling to watch someone make the transition from famous-for-DC to famous-for-DC-NYC-corridor — but today’s NYT hammers home the real reason for the Drudge-spurred interest in the move (though Drudge’s interest in Allen himself may be unrelated). As the Times says, Allen’s “hiring may have implications for the status of Time’s other White House correspondent, Matthew Cooper.” TIME honcho Jim Kelley notes darkly that “It’s not a matter of appropriateness; it’s a matter of effectiveness.” Well, at least Matt has his show biz career to fall back on. MORE »

Yes, we’re bringing this feature back at the very time everyone has left town. We’re drunk that way. We will, however, be accepting sightings of famous-for-D.C.-types spotted outside D.C. to compensate. To compensate for everyone being out of town, we mean. To compensate for being drunk we usually just promise we’ll work out the next day.

In this issue, a not-as-exciting-as-her-humping-her-boyfriend sighting of Jenna, Kucinich, Lehrer, Cooper, Gonzales, the Donald and Kerry.

Sightings are sent in by readers. Send yours to .All after the jump.

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The New York Observer makes the case for Matt Cooper, legendary DC funnyman. In the process, iron-stomached correspondent Leon Neyfakh plunges readers into the grim demimondes of both live comedy performances and Washington “humor.” Here’s a snapshot of the Coop, monitoring the work of his protegee, Roll Call columnist Mary Ann Akers, as she floated a few gay marriage jokes at the National Press Club: MORE »

Matthew Cooper’s TIME article finally spells out the information that Cooper was willing to go to the pokey over: How did he learn the name of an undercover CIA agent?

As for Wilson’s wife, I told the grand jury I was certain that Rove never used her name and that, indeed, I did not learn her name until the following week, when I either saw it in Robert Novak’s column or Googled her, I can’t recall which.

And with this admission, Matt Cooper becomes the first journalist to risk jail to protect Google. To be fair, it is a very important source for many journalists. Of course, we must assume that Judy Miller is protecting a different, perhaps even higher-ranking source… Yahoo? MORE »

• Bill Plants cuts to the heart of the WH media operation: “That is frustrating and stupid.” [PBS] MORE »

• The whole affair is “less a perfect storm–to use one of the press’ hoarier clichés to characterize a grim convergence of unpleasant events–as it was a brownout, a distressing midsummer sign that a full power outage is on its way.” [NYO] RELATED: “Play the ‘Chris Lehmann Heapings Of Opprobrium’ Game!” [TMFTML] MORE »