The Second Source

· Did press secretary Scott McClellan know Rove was Novak's second source when he insisted that it was ridiculous to suggest that Rove was involved? What did Rove tell Bush about this, and when?

There are at least two new questions:

· Who it this mysterious reporter who allegedly told Rove about Plame in the first place?

· And who is this new anonymous leaker?

And of course, we still don't know about Novak's first source and his or her motives.

The New Leak

David Johnston and Richard W. Stevenson write in the New York Times: "Karl Rove, the White House senior adviser, spoke with the columnist Robert D. Novak as he was preparing an article in July 2003 that identified a C.I.A. officer who was undercover, someone who has been officially briefed on the matter said. . . .

After hearing Novak's account of Plame's role in her husband's trip to Niger to investigate possible uranium sales to Iraq, "the person who has been briefed on the matter said, Mr. Rove told the columnist: 'I heard that, too.' . . .

"The person who provided the information about Mr. Rove's conversation with Mr. Novak declined to be identified, citing requests by Mr. Fitzgerald that no one discuss the case. The person discussed the matter in the belief that Mr. Rove was truthful in saying that he had not disclosed Ms. Wilson's identity. . . .

"On Oct. 1, 2003, Mr. Novak wrote another column in which he described calling two officials who were his sources for the earlier column. The first source, whose identity has not been revealed, provided the outlines of the story and was described by Mr. Novak as 'no partisan gunslinger.' Mr. Novak wrote that when he called a second official for confirmation, the source said, 'Oh, you know about it.' . . .