Bob Woodward, Judith Miller and Rovian Semantics

Time‘s Matthew Cooper says he spoke “openly and honestly” in his testimony before a grand jury today, but cannot to reveal any details beyond this.

Current evidence shows that White House aide and top adviser Karl Rove might not have used Plame’s name in his conversations with Cooper, but that he at the very least referred to her as “Joe Wilson’s wife.” If this is the case, the decision as to whether Rove committed a crime now lies in the realm of semantics.

The question now is, is saying something along the lines of “so-and-so’s wife” or “so-and-so’s daughter” or “someone whose name rhymes with Malerie Flame” as bad as divulging the name itself? After all, any enterprising young reporter worth his weight in Associated Press Stylebooks could figure out the name of someone married to a powerful American ambassador.

Simply because Rove might not have said Plame’s name, he did at the very least mention details about her that would point to no one but her as the secret agent in question.

As it stands now, Rove’s words could be used as a legal loophole, protecting him from any backlash with regard to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. At the same time, even if he did identify Plame simply as Wilson’s wife, Rove did at minimum violate the act’s raison d’etre by putting her life in danger. That, in the eyes of most reasonable citizens, I suspect should carry some sort of penalty.

We shall see.

In other news, famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward has offered to serve part of Judith Miller’s jail time, which she incurred after being found in contempt of court for refusing to reveal her source in this case.

Encouraging other journalists to follow in his path, Woodward told Editor&Publisher: “If the judge would permit it, I would go serve some of her jail time, because I think the principle is that important, and it should be underscored. It’s not a casual idea that we have confidential sources. It is absolutely vital. And I’ll bet there are all kinds of reporters out there, if we could divvy up this four-month jail sentence — I suspect the judge would not permit that, but if he would, I’ll be first in line. It’s that important to our business.”