RUSH: Drudge has a little blurb here of a Robert Novak column that is going to be published tomorrow. “‘When Richard Armitage finally acknowledged last week that he was my source three years ago in revealing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA employee, Armitage obscured what he really did,’ Novak claims. Novak, attempting to set the record straight, writes this. ‘First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something that he had heard and that he thought might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked and said flatly that she recommended the mission to Niger by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. Second, Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column.'”
Let’s go back last week on the CBS Evening News, I think it was Thursday, Armitage, being interviewed by CBS reporter David Martin, and Martin says, “So what was it that made the light go on to you, Mr. Armitage?” 
ARMITAGE: I was reading the newspaper column again of Mr. Novak, and he said he was told by a nonpartisan gunslinger. I almost immediately called Secretary Powell and said, “I’m sure that was me.”
RUSH: I always thought that sounded odd. I mean, you know you told Novak, and then you read it in the newspaper and you see not a partisan gunslinger and you think it’s you, when you know it’s you. Novak is saying this is more obfuscation, this is not at all what happened. Then, he went on to say in the interview that it was Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, that told him to shut up and not say anything about this all during the nearly three-year period that this dragged on.
So again, Novak writes, “First, Armitage did not, as he now indicates, merely pass on something he had heard and that he thought might be so. Rather, he identified to me the CIA division where Mrs. Wilson worked and said flatly that she did recommend the mission to Niger by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.” They’re still out there lying about that. Second, writes Novak, “Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column.” Well, that’s even more strange, he’s saying, ah, I read Novak’s column, partisan gunslinger, whoo, my God that might be me. When he knew it was him all along. Novak also slams Armitage for holding back all this time.
“Armitage’s silence for two and one half years caused intense pain for his colleagues in government, and enabled partisan Democrats in Congress to falsely accuse Karl Rove of being my primary source, Novak explains. When Armitage now says that he was mute because of Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald’s request, that does not explain his silent three months between his claimed first realization he was the source and Fitzgerald’s appointment on December 30. Armitage’s tardy self disclosure is tainted because it is deceptive.”
Hmm, makes me wonder what Armitage was thinking going out there and speaking, knowing that Novak was going to contradict him, or could if he wanted to, and has apparently in a column that is going to run tomorrow.
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