I know I’ve been obsessing over this story for a couple of months, but since it’s getting so little attention, I’m doing my best to keep the flame of controversy flickering.<\/p>\n
Let’s recap again for those who are just joining us. The CIA sent Joseph Wilson to Niger last year to investigate claims that Iraq was trying to acquire yellowcake uranium for a nuclear weapons program. Wilson discovered the claim was bogus and issued a report to Bush administration officials, but the president proceeded to repeat the allegation, including in the State of the Union. Wilson came forward<\/a> to explain that he had first-hand knowledge of the inaccuracy of the claim, kicking off a little scandal I like to call Niger-gate.<\/p>\n Almost immediately, the administration tried to diminish the story by attacking Wilson’s credibility. When that didn’t work, two unnamed “senior administration officials”<\/a> told conservative newspaper columnist Robert Novak that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was involved at the CIA in sending Wilson to Niger in the first place. Though the claim was false, the administration outed Wilson’s wife as an undercover CIA agent in the process.<\/p>\n This, of course, raised a host of problems. First, the administration placed a CIA agent’s career in danger. Second, they jeopardized the safety of her contacts around the world. Third, it’s a felony to leak classified information, which this was.<\/p>\n So, who, exactly, was responsible for leaking the information to Novak? Novak isn’t saying. For his part, Joseph Wilson believes that Karl Rove was responsible<\/a>, but he hasn’t produced any evidence to substantiate the claim.<\/p>\n In the meantime, the White House has made no apparent effort<\/a> to find out who did tell Novak, and the national press has shown zero interest<\/a> in getting to the bottom of this.<\/p>\n Yesterday, however, my ripple of hope reached the White House press corps. Someone finally asked White House press secretary Scott McClellan if there’s any truth to Wilson’s Rove accusation. Unidentified reporter: On the Robert Novak-Joseph Wilson situation, Novak reported earlier this year quoting “anonymous government sources” telling him that Wilson’s wife was a CIA operative. Now, this is apparently a federal offense, to burn the cover [of] a CIA operative. Wilson now believes that the person who did this was Karl Rove. He’s quoted from a speech last month as saying, “At the end of the day, it’s of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.” Did Karl Rove tell that…<\/p>\n McClellan: I haven’t heard that. That’s just totally ridiculous. But we’ve already addressed this issue. If I could find out who anonymous people were, I would. I just said, it’s totally ridiculous.<\/p>\n Unidentified reporter: But did Karl Rove do it?<\/p>\n McClellan: I said, it’s totally ridiculous.<\/i><\/p>\n Putting aside my jubilation that someone finally followed up on this, let’s look at the substance of McClellan’s response.<\/p>\n
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\nSlate’s Tim Noah<\/a>, a personal fav of mine, noticed that McClellan received two direct questions about Wilson’s accusation at yesterday’s briefing<\/a>. Here’s exactly what was said:<\/p>\n