I'd have to go back and look for the year she/he claims she started at the CIA, but 23 years ago is 1982. This is at the end of Jimmy Carter and start of RReagan. Jimmy Carter initiated massive Affirmative Action hiring/promotion programs that were mandated by all federal agencies. Different forms of it still exist today.
The truth won't ever come out--cause Valerie and Joe can use the national security shield for everything they don't want to say. But I think this scenario might well be the way it was.
In or about 1982, Valerie Plame got a job with the CIA in Virginia in either a clerical position or that of a Trainee. If she started in the clerical ranks she could of jumped to the Trainee ranks via Affirmative Action/Upward Mobility. After a number of years as a paper shuffler, she met Joe Wilson and fell for his worldly charms (hahaha). Blinded by love and ambition, she and boJoe got the CIA to transfer her to a European station where she could continue her Trainee studies and be with Ambassador Joe. When she and Joe returned to Virginia in the early 1990s, Joe was able to get her a promotion to a "manager" analyst slot cause Joe was then tight with a former CIA Director, who was then President --Bush Sr.
It's no secret the CIA is loaded with radical left wing incompetent liberal democrats.
Valerie's CIA ticket for Joe's Africa Tea Trip is par for the course.
Vanity Fair, Books, TV, Hollywood to follow...