So, let's recap shall we . . .

The entire liberal conspiracy-theory coalition of leftist blogtopia is reeling from the "revelation" that our suspicions from last March were confirmed:  Richard Armitage was the leaker described as "no partisan gunslinger" by Novakula in October of 2003.

We're beyond shocked, dismayed, chagrined, disappointed or disa ... ponied that the original source turned out to be (ta dah!) exactly as advertised -- someone with no axe to grind.  Although the fact that he's a Kool Aide drinking neo-con boob with an Iran/Contra skeleton in the closet is no surprise.  (My personal torture remains that Elliot Abrams's name still hasn't surfaced in this case.)

The news content of this story ranks right up there with how many prawns  John Mark Karr had for lunch.

For those of you more interested in learning the facts as opposed to scoring talking points as fuel to bug the liberals, observe this essential bit of information from Priest and Allen's Sept. 28, '03 WaPo article -- before Novak's "gunslinger" column, but after Plame's outing. [my emphasis]

  Yesterday, a senior administration official said that before Novak's column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. Wilson had just revealed that the CIA had sent him to Niger last year to look into the uranium claim and that he had found no evidence to back up the charge. Wilson's account touched off a political fracas over Bush's use of intelligence as he made the case for attacking Iraq.

"Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," the senior official said of the alleged leak.

We already knew Novak's original source was not a central part of the White House vendetta against Joe Wilson.  And yes, Virginia, there was indeed a vendetta.  We also know that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby were part of the vendetta.  Sweet Jeebus people, put two and six together!  Novak found out Plame was "covered" from someone other than Armitage!

It's really simple.  But for those who are reality challenged, let me dumb it down for you.   Libby leaked, lied and he's going down for it.  Rove leaked, lied, and looks like he cut a deal to finger Libby.  They knew exactly what they were doing.  They were neither careless nor innocent. 

David Corn, Co-Author of Hubris [again, my emphasis]:

Whether he had purposefully mentioned this information to Novak or had slipped up, Armitage got the ball rolling--and abetted a White House campaign under way to undermine Wilson. At the time, top White House aides--including Karl Rove and Scooter Libby--were trying to do in Wilson. And they saw his wife's position at the CIA as a piece of ammunition. As John Dickerson wrote in Slate, senior White House aides that week were encouraging him to investigate who had sent Joe Wilson on his trip. They did not tell him they believed Wilson's wife had been involved. But they clearly were trying to push him toward that information.

They were not alone.  McClellan looked the camera in the eye and lied.  So did Fleischer.  The VP's secretive henchman Addington was in on the deal to "get it out [there]," and Armitage's gossipy stupidity gave the rest of them a convenient piece of ammo while retaining (barely) plausible deniability to callously play games with the definition of the word "covert."

Need it spoon-fed to you?  They lied to cover the boss's ass, because they lied us into a war.  They went after Wilson, and in the process (probably with reckless disregard of the consequences, and quite possibly with malicious intent -- which is much harder to prove) revealed Valerie Plame's NOC status because Cheney told them to.  And Cheney himself was merely following Bush's orders to "Get it out," and discredit Wilson.  It's called C.Y.A.

They all have blood on their hands.  Their collective Hubris led us to the most costly and disasterous foreign policy decisions in the history of this great nation.  Sadly, Wingnuttistan is more interested in how this will affect Wilson's book deal.

Armitage Was CIA Leak Source, Lawyer Confirms: "

Richard Armitage, Bush’s former deputy secretary of state,  has confirmed through a lawyer that he was the original source in the CIA leak case. But he says he had no malicious intent. He was just gossiping with reporters.

How does this fit in with the theory that the Bush White House leaked Valerie Plame’s name as a revenge ploy against her husband?

The Washington Post has some info:

‘Just because Armitage did this on his own, earlier, doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a White House conspiracy to ‘out’ Valerie [Plame] Wilson,’ said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group pressing a lawsuit on behalf of Plame/Wilson. ‘We don’t think it affects the case.’

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The N.Y. Times:

Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state, has acknowledged that he was the person whose conversation with a columnist in 2003 prompted a long, politically laden criminal investigation in what became known as the C.I.A. leak case, a lawyer involved in the case said on Tuesday.

Mr. Armitage did not return calls for comment. But the lawyer and other associates of Mr. Armitage have said he has confirmed that he was the initial and primary source for the columnist, Robert D. Novak, whose column of July 14, 2003, identified Valerie Wilson as a Central Intelligence Agency officer.

The identification of Mr. Armitage as the original leaker to Mr. Novak ends what has been a tantalizing mystery. In recent months, however, Mr. Armitage’s role had become clear to many, and it was recently reported by Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post.

Link

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The Washington Post:

... Armitage’s involvement in the matter does not fit neatly into the assertions of Bush administration critics that Plame’s employment was disclosed as part of a White House conspiracy to besmirch Wilson by suggesting his Niger trip stemmed from nepotism at the CIA. Wilson and Plame have sued top administration officials, alleging that the leak was meant as retaliation.

But Armitage, the source Novak had described obliquely as someone who is ‘not a political gunslinger,’ was by all accounts hardly a tool of White House political operatives. As the No. 2 official at the State Department from March 2001 to February 2005, Armitage was a prominent Republican appointee. But he also privately disagreed with the tone and style of White House policymaking on Iraq and other matters.

‘Just because Armitage did this on his own, earlier, doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a White House conspiracy to ‘out’ Valerie [Plame] Wilson. We don’t think it affects the case,’ said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group pressing the lawsuit.

Link

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(Via Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines.)