What we have here is RatherGate II, or III, or IV. IMO, this is just a leftover from the 2004 Campaign. There's no doubt that the RATS and MSM colluded on inventing phony stories in their attempt to bring down Dubya. The reason they're hanging onto this one is to bring down the best GOP operative since Lee Atwater ahead of next year's elections.
It also helps distract attention from the fact they have no ideas, or strategy aside from obstruction and pretending they're still relevant.
This whole mess has made me see the light-- No way I'm voting for Karl Rove in 2008. The GOP will have to put up another candidate for President if they want my vote.
As Rush would say, you swerved into it -- the real story.
There have been reports of a Democrat Senatorial Policy Committee meeting in January, 2003, held at one of the Senator's homes. In the wake of the November, 2002 election, it was resolved that the Democrats had to undertake "a plan to undermine the President's credibility".
Among the invited guests at this meeting were Nicholas Kristof (of the NYTimes), Walter Pincus (of the WaPo)...and Joseph C. Wilson IV (whether representing himself, the Saudis or dissident elements in the CIA is unclear).
It is intriguing, is it not, that the first identifiable leaks of Wilson's "mission" came from Kristof's column and Pincus' reporting. Plus, an account reported by BBC attributed to "a CIA operative" (i.e., likely Plame herself)?
This whole affair was a cynical set-up orchestrated by the liberal Democrats and their fellow travellers in the media and the bureaucracy.