I still do not believe that Plame came up with this idea to send Joe. Given what has taken place since he went this plot was bigger than these two.
She didn’t have to come with the idea, she did execute it.
The Plame “story” only got legs due to incompetence and squishiness of top people in DoJ and after Chuck Schumer pushed it with the help of his “inside man” James Comey. Just weeks after he was “installed” as Deputy AG in December of 2003, Comey insisted on Ashcroft’s recusal from the case and appointing his pal Patrick Fitzgerald to be Special Prosecutor. Not long after that Comey refused to reauthorize NSA surveillance program, with Ashcroft in ICU and Alberto Gonzales having to rush to hospital to get reauthorization from him.