8:30 p.m. EST - White House counsel Alberto Gonzales is notified by the Justice Department that it has opened an investigation into the outing of Joseph Wilson's wife, at the request of the C.I.A. Gonzales tells White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card about the investigation immediately, yet waits 12 more hours to inform the White House staff that it must "preserve all materials" relevant to the investigation.

On the 30th, Bush laid down the law:

"Listen, I know of nobody -- I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information," he said. "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing."

Perhaps that little comment might have focused Armitage's mind a bit? Maybe he called Powell early the next morning to try to save his ass? It was all so innocent.

Armitage, a well-known gossip who loves to dish and receive juicy tidbits about Washington characters, apparently hadn't thought through the possible implications of telling Novak about Plame's identity. "I'm afraid I may be the guy that caused this whole thing," he later told Carl Ford Jr., State's intelligence chief. Ford says Armitage admitted to him that he had "slipped up" and told Novak more than he should have. "He was basically beside himself that he was the guy that f---ed up. My sense from Rich is that it was just chitchat,"

This is a remarkable piece of history being written here. Armitage only realized he was Novak's primary source two and a half months after Novak published his story? He was distraught? Perhaps he needed a cover story to keep his job and stay out of jail.

I wonder if this caused him any heartburn?

According to three government officials, a lawyer familiar with the case and an Armitage confidant, all of whom would not be named discussing these details, Armitage told Woodward about Plame three weeks before talking to Novak.

That didn't come out until the eve of Scooter Libby's indictment. And how is this all spun by Isikoff?

The disclosures about Armitage, gleaned from interviews with colleagues, friends and lawyers directly involved in the case, underscore one of the ironies of the Plame investigation: that the initial leak, seized on by administration critics as evidence of how far the White House was willing to go to smear an opponent, came from a man who had no apparent intention of harming anyone.

The irony is killing me. Literally. The irony is giving me an ulcer. I've seen Dick Cheney's handwriting on Wilson's editorial. I know all about how his chief-of-staff got indicted for obsruction of justice and perjury. Isikoff's story stinks. It doesn't add up.