Paging Al Franken...

Looks like there's a new chapter needed in the next edition of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.

The quote that began it all was "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report." Expanding on that eight days later while talking to Newsday, Bob Novak said, "I didn't dig [the Plame tip] out, it was given to me. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."

Then in his furiously backpedalling column this Wednesday, Novak wrote, "I did not receive a planned leak [...] It was an offhand revelation from this official." Hmm, I could have sworn I read that they thought it was significant. Oh right, I did.

Ouch. How to explain the discrepancy? Well, that very night he explained away his Newsday quote to Wolf Blitzer thusly: "I never said that. I said I didn't dig it out in the sense I went through the files of the CIA." Well, Bob, I don't think anybody suspected for a minute that you were going through CIA files. I know you're an important journalist and all, but give us a break. I'm quite certain the Newsday reporters didn't think you had access to the CIA's classified personnel files either.

Where are all the people who derisively mocked what the (admittedly mock-worthy) definition of "is" is? Damn, but it's quiet in here...