[concerned about politics]

Why in the world should we defend a man who orchestrated the outing of a CIA operative as a kind of petty political payback? He belongs in the slammer.

I agree. If it were a conservative, I'd be angry, too.
So, who's the leaker - really? Names. We want names. Who really leaked it? Do you know something we don't?

[Labrax3]

Names? Karl Rove is almost certainly one of them. He and Novak go way back and there is no doubt that Rove was shopping the story to other journalists almost immediately. Plant it then shop it is standard operating procedure. Obviously Rove did not have access to the names of CIA operatives, even those working the WMD desk, so someone fed him the name. I suspect that Fitzgerald may not know who fed Rove the name, but he will try to put Rove in jail and hope to make him talk. Who would have known the names of operatives at the WMD desk? There are one or two possiblities, but I think Bolton is the likeliest.