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The White House has denied being Novak’s source, whom he has refused to identify. But Wilson has said other reporters have told him White House officials leaked Plame’s identity.
If true, this implies (though not definitively) that the WH had been shopping this story around before Novak bit. Now, I'm not generally against journalists revealing government secrets - quite often the possibility of a ''leak" is what keeps this country going. But, this wasn't a Pentagon Papers-type "the country needs to know" leak, it was a pure piece of vindictive politics. Novak was within his legal rights in running with it, but he shouldn't have. Or, frankly, the story (from him and anyone who passed on it) should have been "White House Attempts Illegal Smear."