Just baseless speculation on my part. I just think it would be ironic if that even before anyone gave the info to Novak, that it turned out that Wilson (being the partisan that he showed himself to be) had gone around to various media outlets peddling the "Niger is bogus" story and as part of it mentions how his wife works at CIA.
Why is your speculation baseless? Here I think your scenario is EXACTLY what happened.
If I'm right, then consider...part of the drama required for the Wilson book of lies, as part of the deceitful plan of McCullough and Carville, was that ole Joe would contend the administration was punishing him for his Op-Ed by leaking that his wife was a CIA somebody.
It was all part of the marketing plan before Wilson's ghost even wrote a word, don't be fooled. This entire thing is an orchestration and I'm wondering, how funny is it that the Dems went out demanding an investigation, expecting, what? Nothing to come of it?
Then Bush says 'sure, we'll investigate', knowing the whole scam. This surprises the Dems as they really don't want the world to know that Wilson himself leaked the info about his wife. Knowing that Novak would run with it in order to discredit him, thus giving Wilson the chance he needed to cry outrage.
I think this is all a setup is what I'm saying here. So you're thinking out loud comment caught me by surprise.
You don't think the Dems, with the help of Hollywood, are capable of this?