Colin Powell's number two man Richard Armitage is getting ready to take the Plame bullet for the administration.

Months earlier, Novak had caused a huge stir when he revealed that Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq-war critic Joseph Wilson, was a CIA officer. Ever since, Washington had been trying to find out who leaked the information to Novak. The columnist himself had kept quiet. But now, in a second column, Novak provided a tantalizing clue: his primary source, he wrote, was a "senior administration official" who was "not a partisan gunslinger." Armitage was shaken. After reading the column, he knew immediately who the leaker was. On the phone with Powell that morning, Armitage was "in deep distress," says a source directly familiar with the conversation who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities. "I'm sure he's talking about me."

This is bullshit.

The leak was orchestrated by the Cheney and Rove to destroy Joe Wilson's credibility and we have already seen the evidence to support that. And the article even mentions it.

But officials at the White House also told reporters about Wilson's wife in an effort to discredit Wilson for his public attacks on Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence. Karl Rove confirmed to Novak that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, and days later offered the same information to Time reporter Matt Cooper. The inquiry into the case led to the indictment of Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Armitage himself was aggressively investigated by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, but was never charged.

So what is the point of writing about Armitage now? Well Newsweek and the author of this book seem to be working to get the heat off of Rove and Cheney before the Democrats take back the House and Senate and start investigating what really happened in the run to the war, the Plame outing, and the Katrina debacle.

So does Newsweek now work for the Bush administration?