Plame Gossip - Bush knew of Plame identity in June.

Jason Leopold once again advances our understanding of what exactly went on around the Plame investigation.

In early June 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney met with President Bush and told him that CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was the wife of Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson and that she was responsible for sending him on a fact-finding mission to Niger....

The article then goes into an exploration as to whether this "knowledge" by Bush contradicts his earlier responses to Fitzgerald. (It must be said that Bush did not testify under oath, and that, according to this article, Fitzgerald has no real interest in Bush.)

But, it does paint a picture of Richard Bruce Cheney totally obsessed with Plame Wilson, and shows that the coordinated "pushback" was a major topic among the top white house officials.

The attorneys and officials close to the case said over the weekend that the hastily arranged meeting was called by Cheney to "brief the president" on Wilson's increasing public criticism about the White House's use of the Niger intelligence and the negative impact it would eventually have on the administration's credibility if the public and Congress found out it was true, the sources said....

A more aggressive effort would come a week or so later when Cheney - who, sources said, was "consumed" with retaliating against Wilson because of his attacks on the administration's rationale for war - met with President Bush a second time and told the president that there was talk of "Wilson going public" and exposing the flawed Niger intelligence. ...

Throughout the second half of June, Andrew Card, Karl Rove, and senior officials from Cheney's office kept Bush updated about the progress of the campaign to discredit Wilson via numerous emails and internal White House memos, these sources said, adding that some of these documents were only recently turned over to the special counsel.

But, maybe the most interesting tidbit to me, is this bit on the timeline. Previously, the White House had been very cagey on the declassification timeline, but this is a good ten days before the July 8 Judy Miller "declassification."

One attorney close to the case said that Bush gave Cheney permission to declassify the NIE and that Cheney told Libby to leak it to Bob Woodward, the Washington Post's assistant managing editor, which Libby did on June 27, 2003.

This whole thing depicts a far broader and far more coordinated effort to discredit Wilson than what has previously been out there. And once again, the all signs point to Dick Cheney running off the rails trying to defend the bad intel on which he propagandized the Iraq war.

If you've been keeping close tabs on the Plame investigation, this article, like all of Jason's stuff, is a must read.

Also, Bush offered his first comment on the recent stories of his politically motivated declassification. He admits to the declassification. Reuters has an early version.