You've got the wrong Corn article.
Corn published that Wilson's wife was covert on July 16, 2003, two days before Novak's column appeared:
“Did Bush officials blow the cover of a U.S. intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security — and break the law — in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?”
--David Corn, The Nation
http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may200507150827.asp
"Corn published that Wilson's wife was covert on July 16, 2003, two days before Novak's column appeared"
Sorry. I misspoke in two ways.
You have the right column. And it was two days after Novak's column of course.
But the point is Corn was the first to publish Plame's actual name -- and that she was "covert."
Two days AFTER Sam