I think it's actaully worse than you imply.
The Plame outing was the direct result of one easily-disproved assertion from Joe Wilson: that VP Cheney had sent him to Niger and supposedly ignored his findings. Beginning with the Kristoff article and then in his own op-ed, Wilson carefully crafted his words to make it sound like Cheney sponsored him (he went "at the behest of" the VP's office). I remember very clearly---in those first few weeks after his op-ed---all the talking head shows asserted "CHENEY SENT HIM AND THEN IGNORED HIS OWN MAN!!" [i.e., Chris Matthews]. Wilson appeared on these shows and now claims he never said Cheney sent him. Crafty. He sat on those panels and never corrected Chris or Tim when they interpreted it that way---you might say it became "conventional wisdom" that he'd been sent by Cheney.
I'm sure the folks in Cheney's office were simply saying "Who the heck is this guy?! And who sent him to Niger?"
THAT was the issue that led to Plame's outing. It's really very simple...if one is really seeking the truth. The Senate Intelligence Committee report showed definitively that Plame sent Joe to Africa and he had lied about Cheney. If the MSM were interested in truth, they would have recognized right then that they'd been had by Wilson.
Some days, our media really scares me. We don't have a government run media like Russia, but we do have a leftist run media which transcribes whatever the DNC tells them to and leaves the investigative work to the blogs.
I remember too when Wilson wrote that he went to Niger at the best of the VP's office. In fact, I was in an argument with a freeper about this matter once and he tried to say that Wilson never said the VP sent him which is technically correct but only by a hair.
Wilson is delusional at best. I believe he openly discussed his wife's CIA ties. I envision Pal Joey as the Walter Mitty type who in his fantasy world perceives himself to be not just the spouse of a "spy" but one himself. It is as by telling people he is married to a CIA "agent" he automatically cloaks himself in the same shroud of secrecy that envelopes her.
I don't believe they were HAD by Wilson... do you believe Mary Mapes was HAD by Bill Burkett?