You had me at “Can I borrow your comb”

Bill Keller, a pushover for a few Zimas and a promise to respect him in the morning:

Embattled reporter Judy Miller may not have been the only one at The New York Times with a weakness for Bush administration whispers.

Executive Editor Bill Keller has iced out Miller for her “entanglements” with indicted White House leaker Scooter Libby and for championing Bush’s search for the illusory weapons of mass destruction.

But we hear that Keller himself fell prey to the spin of former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Word is that, well after many laughed off Miller’s WMD tales, Keller had a series of private meetings with Wolfowitz, who assured him that Saddam was hiding something.

“Keller got snowed by Wolfowitz,” says a source. “That’s [Keller] who gave Miller the green light” to keep writing her piece.

It’s no wonder Wolfowitz would have Keller’s ear. In 2002, when he was still a reporter, Keller wrote a profile that applauded the neo-con’s “patient logic” and “humanitarian impulse.”

It’s gotta be the ears. I hear Keller is an ear man.