A Sidestep and a Backtrack

"The Novak call may loom large in the investigation because Fleischer was among a group of administration officials who left Washington later that day on a presidential trip to Africa. On the flight to Africa, Fleischer was seen perusing the State Department memo on Wilson and his wife, according to a former administration official who was also on the trip."

Did a Reporter Do It?

Adam Liptak writes in the New York Times: "Although enormous attention has recently been focused on the question of what information might have passed from government sources in Washington to reporters, the case involving the disclosure of a covert C.I.A. operative's identity has also pointed out that information sometimes flows the other way."

Asked whether New York Times reporter Judith Miller might have provided information about Plame to government sources, George Freeman, an assistant general counsel of The New York Times Company told Liptak: "Judy learned about Valerie Plame from a confidential source or sources whose identity she continues to protect to this day. If the suggestion is that she is covering up for her source or some fictitious source, that is preposterous. Given that she is suffering in jail, it is also mean-spirited."

Just Catching Up?

Not sure what this story is all about?

Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen got readers of the Sunday Washington Post up to speed with an overview. For instance, they write: "It is now clear: There has been an element of pretense to the White House strategy of dealing with the Plame case since the earliest days of the saga."

Why Rove and Libby Cared

Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten write in the Los Angeles Times: "Top aides to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were intensely focused on discrediting former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV in the days after he wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times suggesting the administration manipulated intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq, federal investigators have been told. . . .

"Although lower-level White House staffers typically handle most contacts with the media, Rove and Libby began personally communicating with reporters about Wilson, prosecutors were told.

"A source directly familiar with information provided to prosecutors said Rove's interest was so strong that it prompted questions in the White House. When asked at one point why he was pursuing the diplomat so aggressively, Rove reportedly responded: 'He's a Democrat.' "

Rovian Antics

Elisabeth Bumiller writes in the New York Times about Rove's antics on Friday's North Carolina trip.

Rove "made a show of his trademark pranks. During a tour of a cotton yarn plant, Mr. Rove tapped a reporter on the shoulder and then handed him a bottle of Tylenol, apparently pulled out of an open pocket in the reporter's backpack. Then Mr. Rove said that the reporter looked like he could use the painkiller.

"On the tarmac in North Carolina, while Mr. Bush, in his shirt-sleeves, signed autographs, Mr. Rove held up the president's suit jacket in a circle of reporters, as if to say that he was no more than a coat holder. But Mr. Rove refused to answer any questions and quickly trundled toward the waiting Air Force One."

As for Bush, Bumiller was able to sidle up to him on the tarmac very briefly and ask him if he still had faith in Rove. In her pool report, Bumiller wrote: "The question was met with a stare straight ahead, silence and a quick brush-off motion of Bush's left hand, as if the president were swatting away an insect."