[lugsoul]

It is irrelevant to the blind. She was "covered." We don't know what her cover was - only that she was buried in another agency. What if "Valerie Plame" was presented as, say, a USAID official? Then some newspaper, based upon a White House source, identifies her as CIA? If you don't see how that is an issue, then you are willfully ignoring the facts. So what if he used her name, if she is being presented as something other than CIA?

[visualops]

Since you like to quote Novak:
How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry.

If you'll notice, at no point did I say any of this is a good thing. I cannot fathom why Novak mentioned her name if he was asked not to. However, there are many very fishy things about the whole affair (#1 being why send Wilson to Niger). It may well be the whole thing was inadvertent, but it smells like a setup to me.