Mentioned this question briefly in the Boltonblogging post below. There's plenty to criticize John Kerry for, but this isn't one of them. The Associated Press now asserts that both Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Richard Lugar "may have blown" a CIA agent's cover during the Bolton hearings. (Lugar mentioned the name in his opening statement; Kerry dropped the name during questioning.)
Well, did they or didn't they blow it? Don't just rely on AP. Arms Control Wonk , the blog of Research Fellow Jeffrey Lewis at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, provides four previous media citations of the agent's name--all which make public reference to the agent, Fulton Armstrong, and the specific intelligence controversy at issue--dating back to September 2002.
So, how come the AP reporter wrote this?
Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., both mentioned a name, Fulton Armstrong, that had not previously come up in public accounts of the intelligence flap.
And how will all of these newspapers that picked up the AP story square the reporter's assertion with those previous media citations?
Update: The Washington Post also ran AP's story.
As much as I respect Michelle Malkin, there has to be a reason that this person was referred to as Mr. Smith during the hearing---
Sure, at one point, he had a resume, and even at the time of the incident that Bolton is getting hung over, in 2002, maybe he was "known, but that was over 2 years ago---he is prolly undercover NOW---otherwise, they wouldn't have started referring to him as Mr. Smith, and when discussing getting him to testify, saying that is would have to be in closed session, so as not to reveal his identity---
NOW, what I just posted actually happened on TV yesterday-so it isn't hearsay---C-span showed it all to the world--I even taped the replay last night---what is to dispute.
Kerry said the name of the person that had been referred to as Mr. Smith---let the frog marching right out of Washington begin!!!!!