It's really not weird if you understand the dem way of thinking.
The timing of regurgitating this story (it's an old one) is due to the turning over of the notes and the fact that Rove's name will be in them (we knew that, but not as "the source" in question).
The dem trick is to take a story and make talking points. Get mileage for as long as you can. When the baseless charge (as it inevitably is when it's the dems vs. Bush) gets beaten back with truth, they merely bide their time and when an opportune moment arrives, they run it out again.
They'e done it on several issues. Two others that instantly spring to mind are GWB's TANG service and Abu Ghraib.
Well, they or at least their MSM arm, really did it with the Koran story. There were times when I thought AP or Reuters story were Scrappleface stories. It was amazing.