Robert Novak Dishes On Valerie Plame And Hubby

It's not often that a political book hyped as a "tell-all" actually delivers the dirt, but that's certainly not the story in Robert Novak's fast-paced bio The Prince of Darkness, 50 Years Reporting in Washington

Let's get right to the point: Did the administration leak former CIA officer Valerie Plame's name to him to punish her hubby, Joe Wilson, who had blasted the president's claim that Iraq was shopping for uranium in Niger?

Nope. He says that it was just an afterthought from his source, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. In fact, it wasn't even a leak. Armitage was just asking a question about Wilson, whom Novak met two days before, July 6, 2003, in the Meet the Press green room.

According to an advance copy of Prince provided to Whispers, Novak entered the normally quiet green room only to see Joe Wilson (whom he didn't know) boasting about his fact-finding mission to Niger, where he found no evidence that Saddam Hussein was hunting for uranium like the president claimed about in his State of the Union address.

"He kept saying, 'We did this' and 'We did that.' The 'we,' I soon surmised, consisted of the National Security Council staff in the departed Clinton administration. He was making clear that 'we' handled affairs better than 'they'--the Bush NSC--did now. In view of what followed, I hope I can be excused for the vulgarism that crossed my mind: 'What an asshole!' "

Two days later, and after getting up to speed on Wilson's claims, Novak was wrapping up a previously scheduled interview with Armitage when he asked why the CIA would send Wilson, a diplomat with no nuclear proliferation experience, to Niger.

"'Well,' Armitage said, 'you know his wife works at the CIA, and she suggested that he be sent to Niger.' 'His wife works for the CIA?' I [Novak] asked. 'Yeah, in counterproliferation,'" said Armitage.

After mentioning her first name, "Valerie," Novak says that Armitage even joked, "that's real Evans and Novak, isn't it," a reference to the type of insider gossip Novak and his deceased former colleague Rowland Evans used to traffic in.

Writes Novak: "I interpreted that as meaning Armitage expected to see the item published in my column." He added: "I am sure it was not a planned leak but came out as an offhand observation."

The rest is history. Novak was investigated in the CIA spy case, slammed by fellow journalists for "outing" an agent, the subject of what he calls false stories, kicked off his regular CNN gig, and barred from Meet the Press for two years-and out $160,000 in legal fees. Still, he writes, "Judging it on the merits, I would still write the story."

By Paul Bedard