One Heckuva Leak

Kurtz washingtonpost.com) -- Judging by a flood of questions yesterday, the public is real interested in this story about the Bush administration leaking a CIA operative's name -- and the media are not looking too good in the process.

EL - He gets the TIME story published about the same time as Novak's which most of our great journalists have missed.

Novak, on CNN's "Crossfire," declared that "nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this." He said the information came up while he was interviewing a senior administration official -- a second one confirmed it -- and that the CIA provided confirmation. The CIA "asked me not to use her name but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else," Novak said, because a CIA source had told him Plame was an analyst, not a covert operative. "So what's the fuss about? Pure Bush-bashing?" (Wilson told CNN last night that his wife was on the clandestine side of the agency.)

Can you imagine what conservative commentators would have said about such a Clinton White House leak? But most are pooh-poohing it, such as Rush Limbaugh: "This Wilson non-story looks like it's going to be another one of those times when the Democrats open the door right into their nose again."

EL - That door will sweep one or more administration officials out of their jobs, possibly into prison.