No-shame Novak outs entire CIA; credit McCain with an assist

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

In today's column, Novak laps up the CIA-was-out-to-get-Bush storyline like catnip. So of course we should all believe the guy who aided and abetted the leaking of a covert operative's name via a source inside the White House who didn't like the CIA. Hmmm, I guess there wasn't enough room in his column today for Novak to mention his, ahem, possible conflict of interest in the matter at hand.

<http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak18.html>

Check out this gem from late in the sniveling piece --

McCain's use of the word ''rogue'' carries historical implications.<\b>

Uh, gee, Bob, wasn't it YOU whose use of the word "operative" in describing Plame carried, uh, "historical implications" that you denied? And were you then caught out as, well, pretty much a liar by Josh Marshall and others? --

<http://www.hillnews.com/marshall/101503.aspx>

... The one thing I regret I wrote,” he told Tim Russert: “I used the word ‘operative,’ and I think Broder will agree that I use the word too much. I use it about hack politicians. I use it about people on the Hill. And if somebody did a Nexis search of my columns, they’d find an overuse of ‘operative.’ I did not mean it.”
...
Could a veteran columnist such as Novak have been so sloppy with this word? Not if you go by his past practice.

I took Novak up on his Nexis challenge, and he does make frequent use of the word “operative.” But the question is how he uses it in this context. I searched for all the times Novak has used the term “agency operative” or “CIA operative,” and I came up with six examples. In every case, Novak clearly used the phrase to refer to clandestine agents.

[xchrom]

1. rampant behavior

they{repukes} will be on a binge for a while -- we will have to suffer through more of this.