Robert Novak on Valerie Plame: Was She Covert?

I kid you not – the man who let the world know that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent is at it again:

Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra could hardly believe what he heard on television Friday as he watched a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. Rep. Henry Waxman, the Democratic committee chairman, said his statement had been approved by the CIA director, Michael Hayden. That included the assertion that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA operative when her identity was revealed. As House intelligence committee chairman when Republicans controlled Congress, Hoekstra had tried repeatedly to learn Plame’s status from the CIA but got only double talk from Langley.

Say what? All you have to do if you want to know whether someone is a CIA agent is to call the CIA? Of course, they tend to give double talk. But this rightwing hack who only pretends he is a reporting continues with his dissembling:

But Hayden, in a conference with Hoekstra yesterday, still did not answer whether Plame was covert under the terms of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. The former CIA employee’s status is critical to the attempted political rehabilitation of former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife … Claims of a White House plot became so discredited that Wilson was cut out of Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign by the summer of 2004. Last week’s hearing attempted to revive a dormant issue.

Yep – Novak is still trying to paint Joseph Wilson and his wife as liberal Democrats. He knew better when he trolled the Federal Election Commission files, which ultimately led him to out the rest of Plame’s CIA colleagues. But read the whole pathetic op-ed as Novak dusts off just about all of the discredited talking points. My only question is why the Washington Post would run the musings of a serial liar and partisan hack who did way too much damage back in the summer of 2003?