[Mitchell]

Could this be just yet another part of Wilson's scheme?

Why would he ruin his wife's career and possibly endanger her? I don't see it.

As for picking Novak as a conduit, a paleo-con is naturally the kind of columnist who would print such a claim. This doesn't mean that the Bush administration is behind it, but Novak is an understandable choice for whoever wanted to get this story in circulation.

[swilhelm73]

Why would he ruin his wife's career and possibly endanger her? I don't see it.

Well the man is a leftwing ideologue who took significant risks with his own career and connections to leak information to the press specifically to attack the Bush administration. If he's done it once why would it be so hard to believe he might do it yet again?

Further, what makes you think his wife has actually been placed in any danger? He knows, presumably, where she is, and what she is doing. And this story has just guaranteed the two of them a lifetime speaking tour on the anti-american talk circuit.

As for the source, you've got two possibilities. The first is that the Bush administration or allies is crudly trying to frighten Wilson into silence in this way that is almost guaranteed to backfire, and they have choosen a nominal ally of Wilson to leak through. If you buy the stupid cowboy paradigm, I guess you'll buy this one too...(the general 'you' here, not the specific)

The second option is that Clinton holdovers, quite possibly even the wife herself, are doing this to continue what Wilson started.

The latter option explains why Novak was choosen as the press can call him a conservative and ignore his stance on the war - knowing full well the public will believe conservative = pro-war. Further, it explains why such a crude and foolish threat type was choosen. As the Clinton administration demonstrated, to quiet troublesome federal workers you release embarrassing facts about their personal life garnered from their security files.

Based on the evidence, it does seem likely this leak comes either from Wilson or allies of his...

[William McKinley]

Notice he didn't say that it was true. He 'carefully' (the article even used that word) phrased it in a way to give the impression that he was confirming something while in fact he was only saying "if it is true". And if the horse is out of the barn, he would have no reason to be coy about it. As a matter of fact, by going to the press he would be maximizing the visibility of Novak's comment.

Wilson is playing games.