...the effort to discredit Wilson was part of the larger campaign to distance Bush from the Niger controversy

“Using background conversations with at least three journalists and other means, Bush officials attacked Wilson's credibility. They said that his 2002 trip to Niger was a boondoggle arranged by his wife, but CIA officials say that is incorrect. One reason for the confusion about Plame's role is that she had arranged a trip for him to Niger three years earlier on an unrelated matter, CIA officials told The Washington Post.”

So much for one of the Republican talking points. I almost feel sorry for RNC Chairman Mehlman who spent an entire weekend making the rounds of the talk show circuit calling Mr. Wilson a liar. This was one point that he pounded again and again. Who’s the liar now?

“(Former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow) said that after Novak's call, he checked Plame's status and confirmed that she was an undercover operative. He said he called Novak back to repeat that the story Novak had related to him was wrong and that Plame's name should not be used. But he did not tell Novak directly that she was undercover because that was classified.”

This shoots down another of Mehlman’s points. The Rove apologists tried to cast doubt on whether a crime had been committed in the first place by claiming that it wasn’t clear whether she was undercover or not. Clearly, it was classified information that Novak published in his column; and he knew it at the time it was published.

“In a column published Oct. 1, 2003, Novak wrote that the CIA official he spoke to “asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause 'difficulties' if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name.’”

Mr. Novak should not be considered part of the media; he is a Republican "operative." My 16-year-old daughter was about 8 years old the first time she saw him on Crossfire. "That man is evil." was her reaction. I'm sure that he was instrumental in the conspiracy of dunces that keeps conspiring to fool most of the people most of the time.

“Harlow was also involved in the larger internal administration battle over who would be held responsible for Bush using the disputed charge about the Iraq-Niger connection as part of the war argument. Based on the questions they have been asked, people involved in the case believe that Fitzgerald looked into this bureaucratic fight because the effort to discredit Wilson was part of the larger campaign to distance Bush from the Niger controversy.”

This "larger campaign" was carried out by a number of administration officials who used outside operatives to do something that is demonstrably illegal. Isn't that the description of a criminal conspiracy?