Prince of Darkness

I wonder if Robert Novak feels like he's writing a police statement or a monograph about an ex-wife when he pens a column about the Plame case.

The former CIA employee's status is critical to the attempted political rehabilitation of former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife. The Democratic target always has been Karl Rove, President Bush's principal adviser. The purpose of last week's hearing was to blame Rove for "outing" Plame, in preparation for revoking his security clearance. Claims of a White House plot became so discredited that Wilson was cut out of Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign by the summer of 2004. Last week's hearing attempted to revive a dormant issue. The glamorous Mrs. Wilson was depicted as the victim of White House machinations that aborted her career in intelligence.

He goes on--with shocking mendacity--to call into question just how covert a covert agent can be if she's not hiding in trees or being ferried from safe house to safe house or blowing tranquilizer darts into the necks of Al Qaeda operatives. Or something like that.

But while it's possible that the administration didn't violate the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, what's not particularly controversial any longer is whether there was a concerted effort to divulge her name and profession. That much is almost definitional. What's a little less clear is why Novak, who should know this case as well as anybody, is so fixated upon Rove. Yes, Rove seems to be as guilty as Libby. But the Queen of Hearts for Plame watchers is definitely not Rove. It's Cheney.