Update: Clarice Feldman of American Thinker fame emailed that she knows Ed Morse and doubts he is the person who ran to Wilson. I take her word for it. The only reason I noted Morse is he fit Leopold’s general description. I definitely trust Clarice over Jason! So assume all of the following is for naught I am afraid. Maybe Leopold was trying to spread misinformation (like he has never done THAT before) End Update

Poster “Bob” over at Tom Maguire’s Just One Minute had information on the mysterious man who ‘ran into’ Bob Novak and got Novak to comment on Joe Wilson. The information came from leftwing (and debunked) journalist Jason Leopold:

Seems like Leopold just can’t let this go either!

“This is the first time the man who met Novak on the street has spoken out publicly about his interaction with Novak three years ago. He was interviewed by Truthout several times over the past two months and has requested anonymity for fear of retribution for disclosing his role in the leak investigation. Truthout has confirmed the man’s identity with former Ambassador Wilson. He is a former magazine publisher, and currently works as a consultant, mainly with private businesses helping local governments improve their infrastructure – such as building pipelines to improve water flow in one municipality. The man no longer lives in Washington, DC.

[snip]

The man then asked Novak what his thoughts were about former ambassador Wilson. Novak stopped dead in his tracks, looked directly at the man he had just met and said pointedly, “Wilson is an asshole. Let me tell you what really happened. His wife works for the CIA as a weapons of mass destruction specialist and she sent him.”

This person has always been a mystery and thought to have been Larry Johnson – ex CIA bud to Valerie. But the description of an ex-publisher turned consultant doesn’t fit. Well, doing some web searching I came up with the name Ed Morse who fits the description quite well. One site has this:

EDWARD L.MORSE is Executive Advisor at Hess Energy Trading Co., L.L.C. he joined HETCO in April 1999 after more than a decade as Publisher of Petroleum Intelligence Weekly. From 1978 to 1981 Morse was at the Department of State, where he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for international energy policy. A frequent commentator on oil market trends, both in writing and for broadcast media, Morse is the author or co-author of four books on politics, finance, energy, and international affairs.

Basically this puts Ed Morse on Cheney’s energy commission, and that would seem to make him a non-candidate. But note Morse’ stint at the State Department. He is also associated with one James Baker, but is tagged here as a Democrat fundraiser:

McKee’s job is to ensure the implementation of the State Department/US oil industry plan to consolidate Iraq’s own oil industry, and foil the neocon plans to sell off Iraq’s government-run oil industry piecemeal. The plan is finalized during meetings in November and December 2003, in Houston, without input from any Iraqis; the upshot is that the oil industry will remain a government-run business, though now by American administrators, and will continue as part of OPEC. Documentation of the Iraq oil plan proves exceedingly difficult for reporters to locate, but eventually Palast’s researchers make contact with Ed Morse, an advisor to Hess Energy Trading and a fundraiser for the Democratic Party. Morse, a colleague of Bush advisor James Baker, works very closely with the administrators in Iraq.

Morse seems to be a bit of a cipher. Sometimes challenging the idea Iraq was about oil, but at other times associated with the opposition to the Iraq war. But a more extensive biography shows him as joining government during the Carter years:

Ed Morse is Executive Advisor at Hess Energy Trading Co., LLC, a proprietary trading firm, with offices in London and New York. His career in the energy sector spans more than two decades and includes senior positions in business, government, academia and publishing. He joined HETCO in April 1999 after more than a decade as Publisher of Petroleum Intelligence Weekly and other oil and gas industry newsletters.

A frequent commentator on oil market trends, both in writing and for broadcast media, Morse is the author or co-author of four books on politics, finance, energy and international affairs. He has written some five dozen scholarly articles and numerous other commentaries. His industry experience includes a management position at Phillips Petroleum Company; he also co-founded the Petroleum Finance Company. In government he served in the Carter and Reagan administrations, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Energy Policy. He has taught at Princeton, Columbia and Johns Hopkins Universities and was on the senior research staff of the Council on Foreign Relations. Morse is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Oxford Energy Policy Club. He is a trustee of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, chairman at the Energy Forum of New York University, and a member of the advisory committees for the energy programs at Columbia University, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the University of Houston. He has been active in public policy issues for a long time. For example, in the aftermath of the Gulf War, he served as oil advisor to the United Nations Compensation Commission on Iraq, playing an active role in the establishment of the U.S. oil-for-food program. In the winter of 2000-2001 he chaired a joint task force of the James A. Baker III Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations on Energy Security. In 2002-2003 he worked closely with the U.S. Department of Defense on matters related to oil and Iraq.

I cannot find a direct connection to Wilson yet, but there is a connection through James Baker:

As well, he told The BRAD BLOG that he planned to read a letter on air which he received from Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush shortly after an article of his was printed in the San Jose Weekly News, on October 13, 2002, in which Wilson related his concerns about the pitfalls of the approach to Iraq being taken at the time by both the U.N. and the U.S.

In reply to that article, Wilson said that the former President wrote that he had “read your article and I agree with a lot of it.”

Additionally, Wilson explained, Bush 41’s own National Security Advisor, Brett Scowcroft had contacted him to ask whether he “could walk on over to the White House with the letter” at the time. Which apparently he did.

Wilson also had sent the article to Bush 41’s Secretary of State, James Baker.

Baker knew Wilson from his days in Iraq during the first Gulf War. So through Baker it is probable and possible Morse and Wilson knew each other. Therefore Morse is a top candidate to be the mystery man who ran into Novak in 2003 and then ran to Joe Wilson.