Reply #7: Yes.

[Lexingtonian]

There are two people who did the dirty work out of the White House in July, according to Novak's articles. There are six journalists who the story got shopped to. And there is potentially a ninth person (it may be one of the eight) who leaked the 2/6 setup of the thing out of the White House.

Wilson says he got one of the six journalists to tell him that Rove was shopping around more of the thing, and leaking from some of the other ones confirms that ID.

So we have Rove (1 of 2) and Novak (1 of 6), with at least another of the 6 providing confirmation (and is thus known).

The easiest way of finding the rest of the 6 is to see which ones name Rove as their source in columns- have done business with him- and then select which ones are the most reliable daily columnists and part of the Conintern network, i.e. which ones are sufficiently accredited on their side to get tossed onto Newsmax and into the WSJ editorial page ASAP. (On July 11 or 12 the White House needed the alleged dirt on Wilson out in a big big hurry.) Try Safire, Krauthammer, that ballpark. The idea was to poison Wilson's allegations before they could have full effect among the Believers. Wilson can name at least one of them, and

The easiest way of finding the other manure spreader in the WH is to see who, other than Rove, is particularly important as "access" to Novak et al. And s/he has to have the kind of clout as domestic political operative in the WH- iow, a first or second rank official- to be involved in as important and dirty an op as this.

The White House is certainly hard at work trying to find out who the (likely) ninth person- the leaker to the WaPo- is. That one I can't guess- maybe it's a CIA or Justice person with mid-level friends in the WH. Someone possibly connected with the Wilsons in some way and upset at the travesty of it all. Possibly it's the same journalist who gave away the game to Wilson personally. Notice how the WaPo article shows up, written as if the reporters have known this stuff for some time and waited for a go-ahead. I'd guess it's someone who knew about and didn't want to let Ashcroft suffocate the CIA referral, and s/he told the WaPo folks to get on the matter after Ashcroft hid the referral for a week.

We'll find out the original eight within days. The ninth could be a good while longer, or maybe we'll hear of a sudden dramatic firing or desire to be with family or an abrupt reassignment to assessing millet harvests in wartorn parts of Ruanda.