Is Howie Kurtz Crushing on Emily Miller?

Woman Up alumna and sister columnist Emily Miller got a big wet valentine from columnist Howie Kurtz in the Washington Post this morning. If you read his story headlined "Sideswiped by Scandal, Trapped by the Past" over the Internet you might miss one of the dozen or so very becoming pictures of our Em that the media reporter got 55 column inches of front page real estate for.

I know Kurtz is a professional and is happily married and all, but his description of Emily (who I agree is a babe) suggests that Howie has the tiniest and surely completely harmless crush on our dear diva. I say that because the 2,700 word article about Emily's debut as the Politics Daily gossip columnist depicts a narrative of a distressed damsel more forlorn than any of us who work with Emily could immediately identify. Perhaps overly analytically, I attribute that miss to the profiler romantically projecting our gossip girl might still be in need of a rescue.

(Emily took some romantic blows a few years ago and the bad ex-boyfriend -- we've all had 'em, right? -- had the horrible manners to become a major figure in a big political scandal. Emily, as we know, is "afraid of nobody," but the breakup fallout was still painful.)

Of course, we all recognize that the story ends happily because here she is with us now writing Emily's Post, her own dishy column in the up-and-coming PD. While the ex-boyfriend, an associate of felonious influence peddler Jack Abramoff, was last seen "cooperating with the FBI." Emily, a proud example of ladies who Woman Up, has long ago moved on in matters of the heart and is considering new applicants. Not to mention inspiring heroic impulses in those who need not apply. (Update: To clarify, Emily does not interpret Kurtz's piece as a personal mash note.)