It really wasn't so long ago that the Times found it of vital importance exactly who told columnist Robert Novak that anti-war ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.
Now we know, thanks to "Hubris," a new book by Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff and left-wing writer David Corn of The Nation, someone who bears much responsibility for puffing up the Plame non-story in the first place.
Times legal reporter Neil Lewis notes what everyone who has Internet access alreadyknows - that Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state under Colin Powell, was columnist Robert Novak's source for the information that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Wilson/Plame,worked for theCIA.
Having lost the partisan angle of a vengeful White House out to sabotage the now-discredited Wilson for suggesting the Iraq War was based on false pretenses(the moderate Armitage was no fan of the war), the Times shrugs the story off onto page A12: "First Source of C.I.A. Leak Admits Role, Lawyers Says."