The Rove thing explodes. In the face of liberals.

But at the same time, Wilson acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job at the time Novak's column first identified her. "My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity," he said.

That article, in itself, should close the door on whether Rove outed a CIA agent.
Its been a pretty funny day watching liberals tripping over their own feet, backpedaling.

So let's do a quick overview of what we've learned.

The left felt that it was Rove who outed Valerie Plame as a covert CIA agent.
But Victoria Toensing, one of the people who helped write the law, doubts that charge in a NY Times article:

"She had a desk job in Langley," said Ms. Toensing, who also signed the supporting brief in the appeals court, referring to the C.I.A.'s headquarters. "When you want someone in deep cover, they don't go back and forth to Langley."

Toensing also said that "We made it exceedingly difficult to violate" the law.

There are a lot of people calling for Rove's firing. The NY Times said:

Mr. McClellan and Mr. Bush have both made clear that leaking Ms. Plame's identity would be considered a firing offense by the White House. Mr. Bush was asked about that position most recently a little over a year ago, when he was asked whether he stood by his pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked the officer's name. "Yes," he replied, on June 10, 2004.

This is the actual text of what the president said:

Q Given -- given recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, a suggestion that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leaked the agent's name?

THE PRESIDENT: That's up to --

Q And, and, do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. And that's up to the U.S. Attorney to find the facts.

That's not exactly the same as a simple "Yes," but I digress.

The New York Times has started to refer to her as Valerie Wilson, instead of Valerie Plame. Curious, that.

Mr. Bush's comment came nearly two years after he suggested that he would fire anyone in his administration who had knowingly leaked the identity of the operative, Valerie Wilson. Her naming has led to a federal grand jury investigation.

Huh. So after Rove says that he didn't name her, she is suddenly Ms. Wilson. Yep.
Up until a few days ago, the NY Times kept referring to her as Valerie Plame. Now, suddenly, she's taken on her hubbies name by the press?

Oh, and just for reference, this is what the Washington Post said about Wilson's claims a while back:

He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House.

Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

More later, when I have time to type in all of my links.