Rove Gave Novak The Name?

Rove has been running around saying "I never said her name." A statement which is ridiculous as one to clear him of identifying a covert CIA operative, since he clearly said "Joseph Wilson's Wife" was CIA, and we here in the US aren't polygamists.

Even more interesting, though, is that, in the very first article which came out about the leak, Novak states clearly he was given the name:

From Talking Points Memo: "The first newspaper report on the Plame outing was written by Timothy Phelps and Knut Royce in Newsday on July 22nd, 2003, about a week after Novak's column first ran.

The story's lede read: 'The identity of an undercover CIA officer whose husband started the Iraq uranium intelligence controversy has been publicly revealed by a conservative Washington columnist citing 'two senior administration officials.''

As you'd expect from that introduction, the whole focus of the article was Novak's exposure of an 'undercover' or covert agent. And the article, as you might also suspect, had a number of quotes from Wilson and others arguing for how damaging it was to have revealed the identity of a covert agent.

They interviewed Novak too. And this was his response: 'I didn't dig it out, it was given to me. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.'"

Same TPM reference above: it appears the prosecuter may be investigating conspiracy which includes Novak and his White House Sources.