You're So Sensitive

We really didn't want to write another Rove post today, but alas, we can't help it. As you've probably heard by now, Plame's identity as a CIA agent was revealed in a memo aboard Air Force One during Bush's trip to Africa in July 2003. Some have speculated that Ari Fleischer was the source of the leak because he'd been seen perusing the memo during the trip. But today the Wall Street Journal reports that Bob Novak had placed calls to Fleischer before he wrote his column but Fleischer didn't respond. True? Who knows. From the way the WSJ sentence is worded, it sounds like the information came from Fleischer's lawyer: "Mr. Fleischer didn't respond to Mr. Novak's inquiries, according to a person familiar with his account. [Emphasis mine.]" But what do I know?

The story's kicker, though, is that the memo clearly marked as sensitive information regarding Valerie Plame Wilson's wife:

The paragraph in the memo discussing Ms. Wilson's involvement in her husband's trip is marked at the beginning with a letter designation in brackets to indicate the information shouldn't be shared, according to the person familiar with the memo. Such a designation would indicate to a reader that the information was sensitive. The memo, though, doesn't specifically describe Ms. Wilson as an undercover agent, the person familiar with the memo said.

In light of this revelation, we might wonder anew what Rove meant when he told Time's Matt Cooper that he'd "already said too much." Was it a dramatic flourish or did he realize that he'd screwed up? Maybe he knew that the Butler, Jenkins, was already sharpening the knives for stabbing Mrs. Pillingsworth once the power cut out during the storm....

UPDATE: Here's the AP story on the memo.

UPDATE: We won't know until Fitzgerald's through, but the American Prospect's Murray Waas has a possibly momentous revelation:

White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove did not disclose that he had ever discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper during Rove's first interview with the FBI, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The omission by Rove created doubt for federal investigators, almost from the inception of their criminal probe into who leaked Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak, as to whether Rove was withholding crucial information from them, and perhaps even misleading or lying to them, the sources said.

(Via Eschaton.)