Michael Isikoff writes about the “hot secret that never leaked” in Newsweek: “[SecState Colin] Powell and his aides feared the White House would then leak that
[Richard] Armitage had been Novak’s source?possibly to embarrass State Department
officials who had been unenthusiastic about Bush’s Iraq policy.”
Stories
now call Armitage an “inveterate gossip.” David Corn says: “Armitage
may well have referred to Wilson’s wife and her CIA connection
to make the point that State officials–already suspected by the White
House of not being team players–had nothing to do with Wilson and his
trip.”
Do you remember reading Armitage’s name in any of the frog-march speculation (dKosopedia only includes Arimtage’s name six times, Rove and Libby many more)? I guess for some people “frames trump facts.” David Corn admits as much in his blog post on the subject.
By the way, Isikoff and Corn have a new book coming out with all the details. So when did they know that Armitage was the leaker?
UPDATE: Ben Bradlee gave his vote for Armitage in March.
