It's time to play, "Guess The Author!", with your host, CQ. Here's how we play. I will give a quote about the Plame/Rove leak investigation, and readers have to guess who wrote it and when. The prize for guessing correctly -- well, lording it over your neighbors, feeling good, and so on.

(Hey, this isn't Bob Barker, mm-kay?)

Anyway, here's the quote, courtesy of CQ reader Andrew X:

At the threshold, an agent whose identity has been revealed must truly be "covert" for there to be a violation of the Act. To the average observer, much less to the professional intelligence operative, Plame was not given the "deep cover" required of a covert agent. ... She worked at a desk job at CIA headquarters, where she could be seen traveling to and from, and active, at Langley. She had been residing in Washington -- not stationed abroad for a number of years. ... [T]he CIA failed to take even its usual steps to prevent publication of her name.

So who wrote this? The Washington Times? Bill O'Reilly? Rush Limbaugh? Captain Ed, or his evil twin Dafydd?

Pencils down, please.

This was written by --

ABC, CNN, CBS, Fox, Gannett, NBC, Reuters, AP, Hearst, Knight-Ridder, the Tribune Company, the Washington Post, and about two dozen other news organizations.

What? You didn't read that in their coverage? That's because they saved up this argument for an amicus curiae brief appealing the grand jury subpoenas for Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller filed on March 23, 2005. Four months ago, all of these news organizations who have given us such breathless coverage over the past few weeks of leaked tidbits of testimony have argued all along that the entire episode is nothing more than a political fishing expedition.

This doesn't prove them correct, of course. However, all of the people from these organizations who continue to chase Karl Rove for a supposed crime and beat up Scott McClellan at the White House press gaggle daily -- and the White House Correspondents are included separately in this brief -- have an interesting way of changing their tune when convenient.

UPDATE: Jimmie at Sundries Shack guessed the right answer -- about five days ago ...

UPDATE: Jon says Dale at QandO guessed this right nine days ago ...

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