Novak: Wilson did not forcefully object to naming of CIA wife in column

According to Robert Novak, Joe Wilson was not terribly concerned about his wife being named as a CIA employee. He was more concerned with his image:

Wilson focused on not being portrayed as simply an opponent of the Iraq war. Wilson also stressed that his wife went by his last name, Wilson, rather than Plame, Novak said.

I have often wondered at how little support Novak got fromm his fellow members of the press:

Novak said his critics, including those in the press, have attacks his ethics, when in fact their quarrel was with his ideology.

“I was stunned by how little editorial support I received. I was under assault from editorial writers from across the country,” Novak said. “It is startling how little is known about this case by the people who are commenting on it.”

Exactly right. The press, by and large, began with the assumption that the Bush administration revealed Valerie Plame Wilson's emplyment as retribution for Joe Wilson's anti-Bush's pronouncements. That always struck me as nonsense. Valerie was not hurt by the revelation and neither was Joe.

For a press that has examples of how you treat your political enemies (see the way the Clintons played the game) the Valerie Plame revelations were on a par with the furious ginned up attacks on Rush Limbaugh; full of faux outrage in a successful attack on the integrity of President Bush.