Rove & Confidentiality

I'm going to cut down on the amount of ranting I do about Rove, because I understand the issues involved, and I know that they cannot be sorted out right at this point.

The rest of the chatter is irrelevant.

Just one quick example of the latest spin. The rumor is that Rove is claiming Novak called him and told him about Plame's identity with the CIA, not the other way around. Apparently Rove merely confirmed that she was at CIA.

Sounds reasonable on the surface, right? It's not - it's illegal.

It's a great tactic of journalists on a fishing expedition. Everyone knows that. Just state your suspicion like it's obvious, and get the source to agree with you or merely talk about it. Viola, confirmation.

Example: A reporter calls me up and he says that he knows Dick Cheney is in the hospital having a heart installed. He asks me to confirm. If I say yes or no, I lose my job - period. It's as simple as that. The correct response is "I cannot comment on any sort of confidential information".

All of the chatter that's going on right now is merely distractions.

But - in reality, it's a moot point because Novak already said it was Rove who told him.

In fact, here's what Novak said in his first interview that we know of just after he leaked Plame's name in print:

Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."
[...]
A senior intelligence official confirmed that Plame was a Directorate of Operations undercover officer who worked "alongside" the operations officers who asked her husband to travel to Niger.