Updates at the end

Bob Novak let rip on his source in the Plame Game, bringing new life to a dead issue (once there was no crime for leaking the name, this became nothing more than an ego trip for Fitz Magoo). Novak claims President Bush should know who it is and people should go bug him for the information (from The News Observer).

Newspaper columnist Robert Novak spoke Tuesday at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh. He was asked to comment on the “the Valerie Plame fiasco.” Here is a transcript of his response:

“Well, as you know, I was the one who wrote the first story about Joe Wilson’s wife working for the CIA – one throwaway line in a long column, in the sixth paragraph of the story.”

“The way it has snowballed out of all proportion is a result of a campaign by the left and the bad, extremely bad, management of the issue by – in my opinion – by the White House.”

“Once you give an issue to a special prosecutor, you lose control of it. You do not know what is going to happen.”

“Bob Woodward speculates that his source is the same as my source. He says that’s the case. He is not going to reveal this name, and certainly I am not either until such time as this person comes forward and says he wants his name to be revealed.”

“I am confident the president knows who the source is. I would be amazed if he doesn’t. So I think, don’t bug me. Don’t bug Bob Woodword. Bug the President as to whether he should reveal who the source is.”

Emphasis mine. There is a bunch of information in here that is quite interesting. It seems clear Woodward’s and Novak’s sources are the same person, who is obviously a male. The questions is whether Novak is ‘reporting’ on information he has (e.g., his source told Novak that he told Bush he was Novak’s source) or is he speculating?

What is really unfortunate is Novak may have given Fitzgerald reason to call him to testify again, and call on Bush again. The ‘campaign’ by the left was just given a real boost by these statements. If Novak wanted to be left alone, this was not the way to do it.

Tom Maguire posted on this and re-postulates his theory the source for both was Richard Armitage (which makes a lot of sense – btw). Tom also makes a good point regarding Hadley as the source, since Novak was against the Iraq war.

There is one interesting mention of Rand Beers Tom’s timeline for Novak’s source:

Glancing at his June 2003 archives, it does not appear that Novak was focusing on Iraq or intelligence. However, it is interesting that on July 10 Novak wrote a column decrying the Rand Beers defection and the tendency of the Bush Admin to put Dems in important posts. The July 14 “outing” column obviously followed up on that theme.

There has been a lot of speculation on this site that Rand Beers is the source. His connections to Berger and Clarke means he could have connections to the major media players like Novak and Woodward as well.

The article Maguire found is intriguing in that it plays to the scenario that I subscribe to: that this was a trumped up charge offered through the Kerry campaign (via Beers and Wilson) to a gullible and desperate press. It would seem logical that Novak would call Beers to get any comments on his story. Is it possible Beers dropped a nugget about the Niger forgeries by reminding or telling Novak that Wilson’s wife was CIA so Novak should consider Wilson claims a serious matter? Does Bush know Beers? Of course.

The confirmation came from the well documented non-denials by Rove and Libby and others, but the ball started rolling from the outside the administration. It was well known in the press circles by the time Wilson’s article appeared in the NY Times, with its coordinated partner article by Pincus in the Washington Post.

I am still not sure who the source or sources are in this story, but one thing is for sure. If I was Fitz Magoo, I would be seriously considering bringing in Bob Novak to explain these comments and what makes him believe President Bush knows who leaked to the press.

More Later, if time permits.

UPDATE:

Mac Ranger has similar thoughts here.

UPDATE II:

We all know Larry Johnson is Valerie Plames CIA school buddy who rants like a madman constantly. His latest tirade was about Val’s last day at the CIA.

What I did not know is that Larry Johnson worked with Rand Beers at the State Department (check out the 6/19/03 item).

That, apparently, was too much for Fox News Channel anchor Brit Hume, who on air accused Beers of having falsely testified under oath about Colombian terrorists training at al Qaeda’s Afghan camps, reports our David E. Kaplan. Now Hume is the one being attacked–by former Fox analyst Larry Johnson, who served with Beers at the State Department and insists Beers acted with the best intelligence then available.

Well, that connects Rand Beers to Larry Johnson and the Wilsons quite nicely. I found this through this left leaning website’s post on email exchanges between Johnson and Brit Hume over Rand Beers during the time Pincus and Kristof had anonymously writing their Plame Game articles about the Niger Forgeries. Joe Wilson was yet to ‘come out’.

For those interested, the entire Johnson-Hume email exchange is here, with Johnson leading with claim of misusing evidence by Bush

Your comment this evening relevant to Rand Beer’s decision to align himself with John Kerry’s campaign because of his disgust with the misrepresentation of evidence by the Bush Administration was reprehensible.

Sounds like the Niger forgeries sound bite again. Anyway, it is interesting there is a really tight connection between Beers and Johnson and Valerie.

More as time permits.

UPDATE III:

The White House is not impressed:

The White House took issue on Thursday with a claim by syndicated columnist Robert Novak that President George W. Bush knows who the source is who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

“I don’t know what he’s basing it on,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, declining to comment further.

Maybe he is channeling someone.