Well, suit yourself…I recall considerable controversy over the ‘name’ as well as the ‘identity’

Mark…let Joe Wilson do the work for you…last July 14th

Jamie Gangel: It’s now public that President Bush’s top adviser, Karl Rove, did talk to at least one reporter about your wife. But Rove insists he never used her name and that he did not know that she was undercover. That he did not knowingly give her up.

Wilson: My wife’s name is Wilson. It is Mrs. Joseph Wilson. It is Valerie Wilson. And he named her. He identified her. So that argument I don’t believe stands the test of — stands the smell test.

and again, different interview on July 14th, 2005

“My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity.”

The best quote I’ve seen all day, by Gateway Pundit…

There you have it…it all starts with Joe and ends with Joe

I have no idea if covers were blown and lives jeopardized. Neither do you. Nor did the people who talked to Novak; that’s why their actions were reckless. And why should is the administration’s behavior in any way dependent on “the left,” Eric Lichtbrau or Joe Wilson’s personality disorders?

It was also idiotic in it’s own right as a political tactic. It didn’t push Wilson out of the limelight; it gave him the spotlight and a martyr’s complex. It didn’t shore up the adm.’s case about NIger; it led to the confession that it that it shouldn’t have been in the SOTU and years of handwringing over the fate of WH officials.

In other words, it was emblematic of how this administration operates – all gonads, no brains.

she walked in the front doors of her cia office everyday.

If Joe Wilson’s wife did not work at the CIA, he never goes to Niger. By logic, I conclude that she had a hand in his selection.

“Regardless, it doesn’t matter what her status was; the White House’s recklessness exposed everything she had ever touched”

If the left had ever acknowledged reality and accepted she wasn’t covert-they wouldn’t have had the ability to pursue the ‘scandal’. Also if she had written a book about her experiences in the CIA, would that have been ‘reckless’ on her part to have ‘exposed everything she had ever touched’?( a small correction to your statement-they did not expose everything that she had touched-just her name and role in her husband finding work. The left has been the driving force behind establishing her bona fides, her status, and the threat of knowing her name meant-all of whcih were complete exagerations-much as saying “exposed everything she had ever touched”-shades of Wilsonian semantics.

In trying to establish the idea that CIA covers were blown and lives jeapordized, they have exposed the hypocrisy of the NYT and much of the left in their complete dismissal of the swift program.

Now you can draw your own conclusions, but the fact that the investigation is over, with only a charge of perjury against Cheney’s chief-of-staff, makes me think that’s a load of hooey…and Novak’s account doesn’t bolster the contrary view…

And the “truths” of morons like Cliff May are any better? Regardless, it doesn’t matter what her status was; the White House’s recklessness exposed everything she had ever touched – for nothing other than stupid political gamesmanship and juvenile innuendo about nepotism. Her past was still a secret.

I realize Joe Wilson is a dick, and the White House had every right to hit back. They could have easily played him off as a crank and a nobody. But that doesn’t justify dragging in sensitive information, which led to this whole sorry mess. There would have been nothing about Plame to hype had she been left out of it.

I have yet to see an actual report of how her ‘outing’ has jeopardized anybody or any program.

Gee, I wonder why.

The pattern of behavior exhibited by the left on this whole matter, is the very same behavior that they have criticized the WH for.

I’m funny this way, but my expectations for POTUS are a wee bit higher than for Jane fookin Hamsher or even His Excellency Joseph Wilson.

And Mark, WTF are you talking about? The “name” had nothing to do with anything. It was no secret that Valerie Wilson neé Plame worked for “Brewster Jennings” and was married to Joseph Wilson; in fact, they apparently tried to climb the Washington social ladder (thus the Who’s Who entry).

Wilson obviously means she was identified by the WH as connected to the CIA, and thus the story. Novak doesn’t refute that. His claim is that his primary source did it accidentially, with confirmation from other officials, not as part of a grand plan. But the fact remains that she was “outed” – be it through clumsiness (Novak) or nefariousness (Wilson). That’s the “central allegation.”

He [Wilson] said he believes that political operatives in the White House gave his wife’s name to Novak, and he thinks he knows who they are. But he’s “not ready, yet” to name them. He hopes an investigation – by the FBI, Congress or both – will take care of that.

You see anything about a Who’s Who entry there?…

They are now using tarot cards as visuals…

I wonder if Jason L could use it as a source.