Robert Novak, the clandestine columnist
Can Robert Novak succeed on the stage by playing the outraged husband of a CIA agent whose identity as a deep-cover spy had been revealed by a certain syndicated columnist?
The answer will become apparent March 6 when Novak dresses up as retired diplomat Joseph Wilson to perform before Vice President Cheney and some 500 other guests at the annual white-tie Gridiron Dinner at the Capitol Hilton.
In pursuing his day job as a nationally syndicated columnist, Novak identified Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative working in the field of weapons counterproliferation. The July 14 column has triggered a full-press FBI probe to find the leaker, amid much journalistic soul-searching.
Novak swears he’ll never tell anybody,
including Wilson, who will also be at the dinner watching Novak (aka Joe Wilson) sing of his sad plight to the tune of “Once I Had a Secret Love.”
The lyrics begin:
“Novak had a secret source/who lived within the great White House/and one day his secret source/told him of my beloved spouse …”
Novak, also a pundit on CNN, isn’t talking. But some other insiders, including Gridiron President Al Hunt of The Wall Street Journal, confidently predict that the Novak-Wilson number will prove to be a showstopper.
more…
http://thehill.com/under_dome/022504.aspx